This Means War!
by SkylarkRequiem
Summary: INDEFINITE HIATUS! Alex is tricked into attending a survival camp, but his mood changes when he finds out who's camping next door... Now it's time for pay back and Alex plans to do it in style. Super spy style.
1. Conned!

* * *

**Chapter 1**

**Conned!**

* * *

It was a lovely day for a nice stroll through the neighbourhood, everything was quiet and peaceful. The temperature was just prefect, a mild twenty two degrees Celsius, and it seems nothing can disturb your relaxing walk... Unless of course it's that certain fourteen year old super spy yelling at the top of his lungs.

"You did WHAT?" Alex Rider exclaimed, looking exasperated as he faced his housekeeper. The look of horror slowly growing on his face. He looked like the average boy, short fair hair and brown eyes with a well built body. He was the type of guy you see being swooned over by girls – not that they get much of a chance to. You see, Alex Rider was no ordinary boy; he was a spy, one that would rather not be a spy but instead, just a normal boy. Fat chance. MI6 were more then willing to blackmail him into doing some more of their dirty work. As if they were ever going to leave him alone.

"I signed you up for survival camp, run by the scouts." Jack repeated slowly, waving the form in his face. "Come on, it's not that bad." She said enthusiastically.

_Oh yes, easy for you to say, you're not the one who is already looked down upon by your classmates_. Alex thought, a little harsher then he meant to. He knew Jack was only trying to help, but seriously? Why should he go on a survival camp when he's already survived eleven days of SAS.

"But Jack, I can't." Alex protested, "I've got work to catch up on."

"Don't worry, I already sorted it out with the teachers." Jack grinned, "Anyway, Tom's going too and I thought he would need the company."

"Really?" Suddenly Alex looked interested before he realised that she was probably conning him into going. "As if. Tom's not that sort of person."

"I asked his mum. She told me so." Jack said with conviction, "Apparently a lot of the boys are interested because there's going to be a survival camp."

Alex bit back a laugh, "I think their version of 'survival camp' is a bit different to mine." He pointed out, "They haven't tried a SAS training camp."

"But it'll be fun anyway! You'll get to meet some new people and catch up with friends."

"I need to study." Alex said firmly, "I can't go."

"Oh alright." Jack's enthusiasm faded and she looked like she was going to cry, "I was only trying to help…"

Alex sighed, trying hard not to feel guilty which was an almost impossible task to do with the look Jack was giving him, "I know, but really, I'm too busy."

Jack looked crestfallen, "Ok, sorry I bothered you…"

Alex winced; he hated the way she was staring at him, so he turned his head away so that he couldn't see her dejected look. He knew if he looked at if for any longer, his will would break and he would give in to her, "It's alright. I should start on some of my work…"

"Yeah. You know it really wouldn't help if you were out and about more." Jack said hopefully.

Alex laughed and shook his head, "I've spent more time in the last few months out of the house then in the house. Thanks to MI6." He said bitterly.

"Well, it was worth a try. You've been looking depressed lately." Jack commented, brushing her red hair out of her face.

"Of course I am. I find out that I had a godfather and I work with him on a mission for the ASIS. I had been looking forward to finding out more about my father – turns out he was the one that had killed him." Alex replied bluntly.

"Alex, I'm sorry."

"No, forget I said anything." Alex said before he left the room.

* * *

Alex groaned as he stirred and found himself still sitting at his desk, surrounded by uncompleted work and open textbooks. He'd fallen asleep on top of his history assignment – a thousand word essay on the Romans. He glanced at the digital clock sitting on top of his bookcase, groaning again when he saw what the time was – five thirty, Jack was going to be cranky if he missed dinner.

"I see you're awake." Jack commented as he trudged down the stairs and into the dining room. She had prepared spaghetti Bolognese which was currently waiting on the table for him.

Alex grunted, "How did you know I was asleep?"

"Well I called for you twenty minutes ago." She said with an amused look on her face.

Alex rolled his eyes, "I guess history does that to you." He joked, "It's the most boring thing I've ever done."

"So would you rather do that or go on the camping trip?" Jack asked, sounding rather annoyingly correct.

"You know full well which one I would rather." Alex replied stiffly as he dug into his dinner.

"Then you would do it?" She looked eager as she waited for his answer.

Alex sighed, "Are you really that desperate to get rid of me?" He remarked.

Jack looked horrified, "Alex! How could you say such a thing?"

"Well you were sure implying it…" Alex shrugged casually.

"Alex, you know I care for you. If I didn't, I would've gone back to America when this whole MI6 thing started." Jack said.

"Yes, I know." Alex admitted, "I was just kidding with you." He paused for a moment before continuing, "Look, if I agreed to go to this 'survival' camp, will you stay off my case?" He asked finally.

Jack looked delighted, "Yes! Yes I will." She exclaimed happily. Alex was surprised at how fast her mood had changed.

Alex sighed, he can't believe he was actually going to say it.

"Alright, I'll go then."

She smiled gleefully, "Good, It starts next week."

"WHAT?!"

* * *

It was a week later since Alex had agreed to go to the camp, his duffel bag swung across his shoulder as he met up with the other boys who had signed up in front of Brookland Comprehensive School. There were fifteen other boys waiting for the bus to come. To Alex's surprise, he actually recognised all of them. From where he was standing, he could see James, Shane, Andrew, Tim, Darran, Marcus, Josh, Daniel, Michael, Jack, Brian, Charlie, Kevin and Maxwell, or Max as he preferred to be called.

"Alex!"

Alex turned to see his best mate, Tom Harris bounding over towards him. Tom looked the same as always, his bright blue eyes were energetic and his black hair was spiked. Alex grinned, "I see that Jack wasn't lying."

" 'bout what?" His friend asked curiously.

"That you were going to this ridiculous camp." Alex said, loud enough for Tom to hear, yet quiet enough so that no one else heard him.

"It can't be that bad. Besides it's a fortnight off school." He grinned, "Besides you have more knowledge then we do."

"That." Alex started, "Was different. I doubt this scouts camp is going to be nothing compared to SAS training."

"And that is why you're the super spy and not me."

Alex laughed, "Trust me, you don't want to be one."

"Really, it sounds so cool though." Tom smiled.

"You don't want to join my world." Alex shook his head wearily, "You just don't."

On that final note, the bus finally arrived and as its doors opened, four boys who looked around the age of eighteen hopped out. The four teens reminded Alex horribly of K-Unit.

One of the teens, a tall dark haired boy with emerald green eyes surveyed the boys coldly, "I'm Callum, and this is Kyle, Henry and Arthur." He said, indicating each person as he said their names. "We are your leaders for this camp."

Once Callum had gone through the rules and explained what they were going to do, fifteen excited boys scrambled onto the bus while the remaining boy climbed in half as enthusiastically.

_How did Jack manage to talk me into this again?_


	2. Let's Go Hiking!

* * *

**Chapter 2 **

**Let's Go Hiking!**

* * *

_Day 1_

* * *

The bus bumped its way merrily down the road with twenty teens inside it, excluding the two adults who were there merely for supervision. Alex had his head rested against the window – which looked like it hadn't been washed in _years. _The bus gave another jolt which smashed his head against the window quite painfully.

Growling, Alex pulled himself into an upright position and glanced over to his friend, Tom, who was eagerly arguing with Marcus over who was the best soccer team ever. It was typical of his friend, whom where he lacked in grades, made up for it in the sporting field. He was Alex's main rival in the sporting arena.

One of the boys, Shane who sat in the seat directly in front of Alex, twisted his body around so that he could see Alex through the gap in between the seats. Unlike most of the other boys in the bus, the boy was scrawny, and was often teased in school because of his numerous medical problems so it had been a surprise for Alex when he found out that Shane was going on the camp as well.

"Alex." The boy said pleasantly, "I didn't think you would be going as well."

Alex smiled wryly, "I didn't have much choice."

"Oh, well it's good to see you back, what was it that you had last time? Appendicis wasn't it?" Shane asked.

"N-… I mean yeah, yeah it was appendicitis." Alex answered as he mentally kicked himself. He had forgotten for a brief second that it had been the excuse MI6 had made up for him.

"Cool, you've got a scar?" Shane inquired, sounding curious.

Alex shook his head, "No."

"Why?"

"Wasn't serious enough."

"So why did you spend so much time off school then?" Shane raised an eyebrow.

Alex thought frantically for an excuse, his classmate had h im there. Why would he spend so much time off school? "Err… The doctor wanted me to recuperate – convinced us to go on a holiday." He lied, knowing how far-fetched the excuse sounded.

"Right…" Shane didn't look so convinced, from the look on his face Alex knew he was probably thinking that he had been doing drugs again or something like that. Alex sighed to himself, bloody rumours.

Shane turned away, and engaged in conversation with the boy next to him, Max, the school nerd.

_Nice talking to you too. _Alex thought with sarcasm as he crossed his arm crankily. He still can't believe he had agreed to this.

About twenty minutes later, Callum stood up, and grabbed the microphone which connected to the bus' speaker system so he could speak into it, "We shall be arriving in half an hour. So enjoy your last moments with civilization, because you're not going to see it for another two weeks." He said coolly, "Kyle and Henry will be distributing rucksacks for your possessions. I suggest you pack lightly. Whatever you don't need just leave in your bags. They will be returned to you at the end of this camp."

There was a nervous chatter among the boys as Kyle and Henry – who were red-haired twins and currently had the same evil look on their faces – moved through the bus aisle and handing each boy a rucksack.

Alex examined his pack; it was a grey-greenish colour and looked like it's been dragged through the mud quite a bit. He opened it and made a face. It smelt even worse then it looked!

"Isn't this great?" Tom said enthusiastically.

Alex held his pack at arm's length, "Sure, if you want your clothes smelling like they've never been washed." He stated, staring at the rucksack as though it had something contagious in it.

"Maybe that's not so great, but the trip. I mean its 2 weeks without parents, or school. It's going to be a blast!" Tom said eagerly

Henry overheard this, and looked at his twin with a smirk on his face, "Look here Kyle, the kid's excited." He said, "Listen kid, we're going to make your lives a living hell." He cackled.

Alex shuddered; already he had the impression that their four leaders were a mini reincarnation of K-Unit.

Uh oh.

* * *

As soon as the bus arrived, everyone scrambled out of the bus and began to unpack the bags they had brought and throwing everything they needed into the rucksacks they had been given. Alex had packed lightly anyway so he managed to fit just about everything he had bought into the pack, though he had a bit of trouble in stuffing a bag his old gadgets he's managed to keep from previous missions. Knowing that there was no way he was going to leave those behind, he took several items out before he managed to fit everything in.

Testing the bag to make sure it wasn't too heavy; Alex tossed his duffel bag into the garage where the stuff they weren't bringing was left.

"I give you two more minutes before we're going." Callum barked, he and his mates were already ready, and were watching as the teens tried to stuff things into their rucksacks, "If you're not done by then, then prepare to be left behind."

As soon as Callum had finished, the rest of his gang had spread out and began to clip weights to everybody's bags. Several of the boys swore when they realised that the weights weighed roughly 500 grams each and three of them had been clipped onto the bags. It didn't take a genius to know they were carrying an extra 1.5 kg.

Callum smirked as the three scouts returned to him, "Oh, and I forgot. We're going to be doing a sixteen kilometre hike."

This was met by a chorus of groans, with the exception of Alex, who looked like he couldn't care less. He'd done a forty kilometre hike with ten kilos on his back when he had been with the SAS. So to him, this didn't seem as bad.

Alex walked over to Tom, and was amused to see his friend busily unpacking quite a few of his items. "Why are you doing that for?" He asked.

"I don't want back problems." Tom muttered, "And it's bloody sixteen k's."

"I can carry some of your stuff for you." Alex offered, "It's not too bad."

Tom looked up, "Nah, I'll be fine. Besides, it'll be heavier for you."

Alex snorted, "It's not going to kill me, and I've done a hike twice as long with ten kilo's on my back."

Tom looked reluctantly at Alex before he agreed, tossing a few items, mostly clothing over to Alex. He unzipped his rucksack and stuffed items in. Tom had to help him zip up the bag again, but they were finished just as Callum announced that time was up.

Alex quickly swung the rucksack over his shoulders and gathered with the rest of the boys around their leaders. The whole group was tense, most were anxious to get the long hike over and done with, others were moaning about the stuff they had to leave behind, but the scouts didn't give a damn and immediately told everyone to shut up.

"Right." Callum started in his bossy tone, "I'll be at the front of the pack, Arthur's in the middle, and the twins are at the back, making sure you maggots don't fall too behind." Callum glanced at this watch, "I give you exactly six hours to complete this hike. For every five minutes over, you're doing 3 sit ups."

Again, another chorus of groans went through the boys, and again, Alex was the only one who didn't seem to be bothered.

The dark haired teen turned and began to march down the track which led into the forest. The group followed with Kyle, Henry and the adult supervisors bringing up the rear.

Alex and Tom walked side by side near the front of the group, keeping a steady pace as they trudged along the uneven ground.

"This isn't too bad then?" Tom asked as he jumped off a rock. They were quickly progressing downhill, which was to be expected because they had been told they were camping in the middle of a valley somewhere.

Alex shrugged, "I don't really care. If I hadn't fallen for Jack's persuasion then I wouldn't be here." He ducked as Callum purposefully let go of a low hanging tree branch – Tom wasn't as lucky and get a faceful of leaves.

"Hey!" Tom exclaimed unhappily, shaking the leaves out of hair.

Callum shrugged, "Too slow, you lose." He smirked, "That's what you're here to learn, we're not a day care." He continued on at a jog.

Tom groaned and lengthened his stride to keep up with the scout, but Alex pulled him back. "He only wants you to jog after him so you get tired early and he gets a good reason to yell at you."

"But he slammed a bloody branch into my face." Tom said coolly.

"He's provoking you."

"Know-it-all."

"It's just common sense." Alex smiled as they headed after Callum – who had disappeared around the bend.

As they approached the bend, they were surprised to find themselves face-to-face with a huge rock about two times their height. At the top, Callum was sitting down grinning evilly down at them.

"Figure your own way up, boys."

"How are we meant to do this?" Tom was starting to look really pissed off.

Alex stared at the rock face, he could see no footholds that were low enough for them to reach, and the rock was impossibly smooth – it must've been man made. There were several vines snaking down the rock face, but Alex doubted it would be able to hold their weight.

"Alex?"

Alex continued to ignore his friends as he studied the leaf-littered floor. Suddenly, his face lit up as he stepped to the side and spotted a rope hanging down from the side of the huge rock. "There's our way up." He said smugly as he grabbed the rope and gave it a quick tug to make sure it was strong enough.

"How'd you figure that out?" Tom asked as he made his way over to Alex.

"Simple, the leaves were disturbed," he said, pointing down at the ground. Sure enough, the dry leaves were all scrunched up from where Callum had previously walked.

Alex was about to climb up when he realised he still had his rucksack on – which would weigh him down and cause him to fall. He took if off and handed it to Tom, "Hold."

When Tom took his pack, Alex grab a hold of the rope again, thankful that he had remembered to wear shoes with good grip. He placed his feet firmly on the rock and began the slow process of climbing the rock. When he was a good metre and a half up, there were finally some footholds where Alex could put his feet in which was a relief because his shoes had already started to slip. Finally he reached the top with one final push; he was safely on top of the rock, grinning down at Tom.

"Tie my backpack to the rope so I can pull it up." He said, ignoring the glare Callum was giving him. Clearly he hadn't expected Alex to figure it out so fast.

After Alex had his rucksack again, he looked down and threw the rope down again, quickly checking to make sure that the knot that was keeping it from falling down was still secure. Tom looked nervously at the rope,

"How am I supposed to do this?" He asked, grabbing the rope, but not sure how where to put his feet.

"It's sorta like abseiling, except you're going up. Just plant your feet somewhere and make sure you're not going to slip before climbing up. Remember to keep your body straight as well, you don't want to fall." Alex explained, "Oh and tie your rucksack to the bottom of the rope – that way you can pull it up after you've climbed up."

By then, several of the other boys had caught up with them and were watching Tom as he made progress up the rock face.

"Oh lookie here. Sick boy made it up to the top by himself." A former bully by the name of Michael Cook leered at Alex.

Alex shrugged, he'd beaten Michael up once, taking the bully down a notch or two and he wasn't afraid to do it again, "That's right, Cook, I made it up here by myself. Let's see if you can too without the help of your gang." He smirked, looking at Daniel and Josh.

Michael huffed, but from the look on his face, Alex knew he'd won.

"Ah, come on Alex, we don't have time for these babies." Tom said as he dragged himself over the edge of the rock. He then turned and hauled his rucksack up with little effort.

"I guess you're right." Alex replied as he grabbed the rope and tossed it down again before retreating back to the track.

"Less chat, more walking." Callum snarled as Tom caught up with Alex.

"After you." Alex shrugged, stepping aside so that the furious leader could stomp past him. He watched with satisfaction as the man past him, he couldn't explain it, but in a way he was getting revenge for the torture he'd went through on the SAS training course. It was a weird feeling, why was pissing off Callum getting back at SAS?

_This isn't going to be a normal camp._

_

* * *

_

Five and a half hours later, Callum, Alex, Tom and four other boys were first to the campsite. It wasn't much, just a large clearing in the middle of no where. The litter of leaves weren't as thick here so they could actually see the ground which looked well worn. In the middle of the clearing was a pile of burnt logs – it was obvious its last occupants hadn't bothered to clean up after themselves. To Alex's amusement there was a small, old brick building to the edge of the clearing which was labelled 'Mens'. It made sense that it was there, there were no rivers or streams nearby which meant that there was no place to take a shower. Still, Alex found it amusing, because usually if you're stuck in the middle of no where, there wouldn't be showers set up for you already.

"Where's the water source?" Alex asked curiously as he set his stuff down on the dirt.

Callum gave Alex a wicked grin, "A kilometre away and seeing as you buggers are here first, you six can collect the water for everyone else. Bucket's are in there." He said, pointing at the crumbling structure. Daniel, one of Michael's cronies, went to grab the buckets, but came out empty handed and was rewarded with a sigh from Callum, "No not inside the bathroom, idiot! There's a storeroom behind it."

The blonde haired boy flushed and scrambled off behind the structure, emerging with a couple of buckets. The guys that were too tired after the gruelling hike just grunted when they saw the buckets and shot pleading glances at Callum who returned their looks with a glare that would've made Wolf from the SAS proud.

"Hurry up! The creek is that way. There's two hours before sun down and we still have to set up tents and start a fire."

Alex and Tom had already picked up their buckets lying on the ground and were already jogging away, "Race you on the way back?" Tom asked with a tired grin.

"If it keeps me awake." Alex mumbled.

The two friends were way ahead of the others by the time they'd reached the creek. Alex stared at the water longingly as he scooped the water into the bucket and quickly splashed his face with the refreshing water.

"God that feels so good." Alex grinned. "Not so enthusiastic now eh?" He said looking at his tired friend with a look that said 'I told you so'.

"Callum's a bastard." Tom complained, "If I'd known some git like him was taking this, I wouldn't have signed up."

"And then your mum wouldn't have told Jack about it and I wouldn't be here either." Alex replied dryly. "So basically this is all your fault."

"It seemed like a good idea at the time." Tom moaned, looking truly regretful.

Alex sighed, "Well come on, I want to get back to camp." He said, picking up his bucket, which was painfully a lot heavier then it had been on the trip to the creek. "I don't think I want to race anymore." He groaned. "The water's going to spill out and then Callum will send us back."

Tom nodded in agreement, "I rather not have a second trip."

With that, the two boys plodded back to camp, a lot slower then it had taken them to actually get to the creek.

If they hadn't been so distracted about getting back to camp, they would've seen a column of smoke emerging from the trees not so far away.

And Alex would've been in the shock of his life.

* * *

Kosciusko Trail was a favourite among SAS soldiers. The hike was a tough yet scenic trail and you would often find a Unit of SAS soldiers camping somewhere in the middle. This time, it was no different, except for the fact that out of the four men currently camping in the valley, only three of them were SAS soldiers while their fourth companion was a former SAS soldier and currently worked for MI6 Special Operations.

The four men were known at the SAS as Wolf, Eagle, Snake and Fox. Three of them made up the current K-Unit team while Fox had been a former member before he chose a career in MI6 instead.

K-Unit had been given a break from duty after their newest teammate, a rather bossy man called Tiger, had been injured in Iraq. So, with nothing to do, the men had invited their former teammate on a camping trip in the middle of the Kosciusko Trail. The hike to get to their camping spot had taken them three hours from a shorter route they'd discovered when they had been a team.

For the last three hours since they had arrived at their spot, they had set up the tents, collected the firewood, and started to cook dinner – making sure to keep Eagle away, who was the worse cook out of the four men.

A bit annoyed that he had been excluded, Eagle had decided to go and fill up his canteen. After informing Wolf, Snake and Fox, who also handed him their canteens, Eagle started at a brisk walk towards the small creek that ran through the valley.

After his kilometre walk, he was startled to see four schoolboys hanging around at the creek. Ducking into one of the bushes, he watched as one by one they left, heading in the general direction of K-Unit's campsite, except on a different path. Eagle was still stunned as he quickly re-filled the four canteens and made the decision to follow the four boys. After all, it beats waiting around for dinner.

As Eagle followed the last boy through the bushes, he wondered why a bunch of schoolkids were in the middle of the valley – after all the Kosciusko Trail wasn't exactly the _safest _of places which was another reason why the location was a favourite among the SAS.

Finally, the kid reached a clearing, having decided that he was too lazy to going any faster. Eagle's jaw dropped. There had to be at least twenty two people there – sixteen of them looked around the age of fourteen. When he spotted the rather run-down building, he realised that this camp was only about half a kilometre away from where he and the rest of K-Unit were currently camping.

Knowing that the others would want to know about their next door neighbours, Eagle headed through the bush, confident that he was taking the right route back to his camp.

"Hey guys! You'll never guess what I found." Eagle said shrilly as he stumbled back into the clearing.

"What is it Eagle?" Wolf sighed.

"I'm not telling you if you're acting like that."

"Well? What is it?" Snake spoke up, rephrasing Wolf's earlier comment.

"Well you see… It seems like we have company five hundred metres away." Eagle grinned.

"Really, who?" Fox looked up with an interested expression on his face.

"I was gonna tell you, but then you interrupted me." Eagle said crankily.

Wolf rolled his eyes, "Come on, just tell us, or you're not having any food."

Eagle put on an expression of mock horror. "You wouldn't."

"I will if you don't spit it out."

"Alright, well it looks like we've got a wee bit of a problem with day care 'cause there's a bunch of kiddies loose." Eagle told them, "There I told you, now give me some grub." He said demandingly.

"Oh God." If there was one thing that could make Wolf fear for his life, it was kids, "Why are there kids there?"

"What am I? Physic?" Eagle raised an eyebrow, "And no, their not kids, they look like fourteen year olds."

"Still kids to me." Wolf growled back. 'So what are we going to do guys, move out?"

Fox shook his head, "Nah. It's not like their going to find us anyway. If I know teens their as observant as a blind man."

"Yeah, I agree with Fox." Snake said. "It's only kids, what are they going to do?"

Wolf made a face, "Be noisy as they sit 'round their little campfire singing the alphabet."

"Or maybe screaming for their lives 'cause the Wolf-man's out for their blood." Eagle laughed, sidestepping a punch from Wolf. "Lighten up Wolf, they're a bunch of teens, what can they do to you without fearing for their lives?"

Wolf didn't look so convinced, but he reluctantly agreed to stay. He was outnumbered three to one anyway.

"It's not going to be that bad. So there's a little noise, none of the brats are going to find us."

Boy was Eagle going to regret his words.


	3. Unpleasant Discovery

* * *

**Chapter 3 **

**Unpleasant Discovery**

* * *

The tents had been easy enough. Alex had been expecting those simple tents made up of just a piece canvas. Instead, he was wrong, the tents they had been given were basic dome shaped with some protection from the elements – thankfully. He guessed the scouts really didn't want to get in trouble if one of the teens ended up with hypothermia or something.

Alex and Tom had chosen one of the best places on the campsite to set down the tent – on high ground with a sturdy tree for protection. Looking around, Alex could see several things wrong with the other tents. Some had been set on low ground, which was quite stupid because if it started raining, they would be swamped in by rainwater. Another thing he spotted was that other tents had been set up under rather fragile trees which looked like they were going to tip over any moment – no one wants to wake up in the middle of the night and find that some of the branches had landed on their tent. It seems that the scouts didn't really care enough to mention it.

"Look at their tent." Tom grinned, pointing in the direction of Michael and his other two mates. The brown haired boy was staring at his tent with a rather confused expression as it kept on falling down. What he hadn't realised was that his two minions haven't yet stuck the pegs in the ground which were suppose to give the tent its stability.

"Ah, well I guess that shows to tell – never rely on buffoons to set up your tent." Alex commented, loud enough for Michael to hear, who stared daggers at Alex. "Oh, and by the way, you might want to move your tent." He suggested.

"Mind your own friggin business." The bully growled angrily.

Alex shrugged, "Don't blame us when your tent is swamped…"

Michael turned red, and looked like he was going to take a swipe at Alex, who shook his head and pointed at Callum's back, "I don't think you want to try that." He hissed.

"Just you wait Rider." Michael snarled, "One of these days you and your drug friends are going to end up in jail."

The other boys on the campsite had stopped their chatter and were watching the exchange between Alex and Michael with rather interested expressions on their faces.

Alex snorted, "You're the one who made up those ridiculous rumours weren't you? Really, how stupid can you get?"

"Don't deny them, Rider they're all true." Michael scowled.

"Oh yes, I've been to juvvie and back, hooked up with a couple of drug dealers and what was that other one again?" Alex put on a thinking expression, "Ah I remember! I'm a terrorist." Tom laughed at this,

"Trust me, Cook, you don't want to mess with this one."

Michael glowed red – if there was such a thing- and stomped his way over to Alex and Tom. He raised his fist and attempted to punch Alex in the face.

Alex caught his fist easily with a tight smile, "Too slow." He said before releasing the bully.

"Alright, that's enough boys." Arthur exclaimed as he stalked over to them with a disapproving expression on his face. It was the first time Alex had heard him talk since the camp had started. The blonde hair man stared at the pair as though they were two naughty Year one's.

Michael paled and stared at the ground, "Yes sir."

Alex just shrugged, but nodded anyway, "You've got it."

Arthur ignored Alex and frowned at Michael, "You should finish your tent, dinner's about to start." He said pointedly before turning and leaving the boys to it.

Alex watched Arthur leave curiously. He was probably the only leader so far who hadn't yelled at them, or dish out some kind of a punishment. Shrugging it off, Alex dived into his tent and rummaged around for a torch. The sun was fast fading and darkness would be following. He doubted that the scouts were in the mood for camp songs.

Dinner wasn't so bad – they had gathered around the fire and were each given a packet of instant noodles. They used the water that Alex, Tom and the others had collected before and cooked it over spirit burners. After everyone had eaten, Callum shooed them all back to their tents, telling them that tomorrow was going to be an early start and if no one woke up early enough, they would find themselves in a very uncomfortable position indeed.

"Why are they so cranky?" Tom asked with an amused smile as they entered their tent.

"No idea. It's like they have some grudge against teens or something." Alex replied as he searched through his rucksack for something to wear for tomorrow, "Oh and these are yours by the way." He said, handing Tom the items in his rucksack.

"Thanks, I appreciate it."

There was barely enough room in the tent for the boys to stand up, so instead, they had to crouch as they awkwardly changed into the clothes they would be wearing tomorrow – there was no point in wearing pyjamas. Alex was wearing navy green, baggy pants with a light green t-shirt while Tom had decided to wear cameo pants and top.

Alex raised an eyebrow at Tom's choice of clothing, "We're not in the army you know."

"It was the best I can find… I don't think they would be too happy if I wore fluro orange or something." Tom said defensively. "At least I don't have war paint on."

"Why would you want to do that?" Alex asked, stunned.

"It would've looked cool! But besides, I can't do it because a certain friend of mine seems to think it's a load of rubbish."

Alex grinned at this, "And that I do."

* * *

"Good, the buggers are finally asleep."

It was eleven o'clock, or as some people may refer it, 2300 hours. Outside, the weather was nice and cool with the occasional breeze. The man who just entered the tent looked exhausted as he slumped onto one of the sleeping bags, not bothering to properly greet the other three occupants of the tent.

The man was known as Dingo, the other three were known as Jackal, Python and Jaguar, and together the four made up N-Unit, one of the most junior units from the SAS, each of the men were in their early 20's but could easily pass off as eighteen year olds. This particular assignment they had been given had come from MI6 as a request, and a rather strange request it was. Who would want to recruit two fourteen year old kids?

The four men had been given the roles of scout leaders running a survival camp for teenage boys. Dingo was posing as Callum; Jackal as Kyle; Jaguar as Henry; and Python as Arthur.

"I hate kids." Dingo moaned, slipping his shoes off.

"Well, 'Callum'." One of the twins sniggered, "You didn't listen to us when we told you not to accept this assignment."

"Shut up Jackal." Dingo snapped without even looking up to see who was talking, he had been with his unit for a year and a half, and could easily figure out which twin was which. "We can't back out now – we'll be a laughing stock, and MI6 wouldn't be too happy."

"I personally would've preferred going to Iraq…" Python mumbled, "Let someone else do the babysitting."

Dingo sighed despairingly, "Just think, only thirteen more days to go." He raised a hand before anyone else in the tent could speak, "So, day one. Any possible candidates you've spotted yet?"

Python nodded, "That Alex fellow, he's got the right kind of stuff and..."

"He could've gone camping before so he knows what he's doing." Dingo scowled – he obviously didn't like the boy. "Come on, is there anyone else?"

"Jesus Dingo, you're not mad that the kid saw through your hidden rope trick?" Jackal grinned. "He figured it in, what? Half a minute. That's potential if I ever saw it."

Dingo rolled his eyes, "But-"

"-But nothing, the kid has the right stuff so he's the perfect candidate." Python smiled, "You should've seen how he handled that Michael kid."

"But it doesn't take good camping and martial arts skills to be a good agent." Dingo protested.

"It's a start, isn't it? Besides it's MI6 who makes the final decision. Maybe they'll send the two kids to Brecon Beacons like that other one…" Jackal made a face as he tried to remember, "Umm… Cub they called him."

"Yeah, I heard he saved Wolf from K-Unit's career as well." Jaguar grinned.

* * *

_End Day 1_

* * *

It was 6am the next day when Callum came storming into the tent. "Alright ladies, wakey wakey. You're in for a tough day today." He grinned slyly before slipping out of the tent, probably going to wake up some other unfortunate soul.

Alex was wide awake, all too use to waking up early, he groaned and slipped out of his sleeping bag, watching as Tom tried to bury his head in his pillow and get some more sleep.

"It's too early." Tom moaned when Alex gave him a light kick in the back.

"C'mon, wake up." Alex leaned over and gave Tom a quick shake, "Or Callum'll have a fit."

"Don't care."

Alex sighed, "I'm sure they would _love_ a chance to kick your ass." He said pointedly.

Tom made a muffled complaint as he finally opened his eyes, "I don't know how you can wake up this early." He grumbled as he unzipped his sleeping bag and got out of it. Running a hand through his messy hair, he stared at Alex as though he was some kind of interesting specimen.

"It's not early, it's 6. Early is 3 am in the morning." Alex said, trying to sound as serious as he could, but his fit of laughter seemed to spoil the effect.

Tom grunted and rubbed his eyes tiredly, "I don't understand how you can do this."

"Hard work, plenty of it. Now come on." Alex practically dragged Tom out of the tent, he was surprised to see that they were the first ones out, it seems like other people were as reluctant as Tom was at getting out of bed.

"God, you guys should be glad you _never _had to go to SAS training." He whispered to Tom, to avoid being overheard. "The way y'all act, you'll probably be having punishments all day long." He grinned.

"Come on Alex, not everyone has the same super spy skills as you do." Tom said matter-of-factly.

Alex shrugged, "I just so happened to grow up around one." He sighed.

It was about ten minutes later when everyone was finally gathered around the remains of yesterday's campfire. The four scouts stood at the front with displeased looks on their faces and Alex noted that their 'adult supervisors' had disappeared.

"That was the most awful display of efficiency I've _ever_ seen." Said Callum, looking very unhappy, "If you guys acted like that when you're stuck in the middle of no where. You'd probably be dead from laziness."

Callum lectured them for another minute and a half on the pros of being quick and efficient – especially in survival situations. Alex only listened to this with one ear as he stared at the ground with an evidentially bored look on his face.

"You, Rider. Look up when I am speaking to you." Callum snarled unpleasantly.

The other boys exchanged a small murmur amongst themselves as everyone turned to look at Alex. He barely even flushed when he stared back at Callum with a small glimpse of defiance in his eyes, "Sure, of course _your highness_." He said mockingly.

Callum looked enraged, "Address me like that again and you'll discover a whole new meaning t-" He was interrupted when Henry stamped on his foot, probably as a reminder that they weren't suppose to be yelling threats at the boys.

Callum turned to glare at his mate before addressing the rest of the group again, "Now, on to today's lesson. Orienteering."

The comment received several groans from the eager ones, they'd all done orienteering some point during previous school camps, and it wasn't fun keeping track of where they were.

"Do we have to?" Max complained.

Alex and Tom exchanged a surprised look, Max was one of those goody-two-shoes at school and he wasn't one to question orders, especially from people older, and looked like they could bash him up easily.

Callum narrowed his eyes at Max, "Yes, you do have to. It's an essential skill you might need in survival." He told them coldly.

Alex laughed in his head, skill for survival, sure. He recalled his little adventure in the Australian bush, he sure as hell didn't need the skill of orienteering to outrun a helicopter that was firing at him, but then again he did end up getting rescued after he replaced his watch battery.

"But sir," Another boy, Charlie, spoke up, "You really wouldn't have a map showing you directions if you're_ lost_ in the bush."

"Suppose you're going backpacking with your friends, without adult company, you're going to have to know what direction you're going to go in." Callum replied, sounding rather annoyed. "And will you all shut up before I decide to stick you in the forest without _any_ maps." He growled.

No one dared to say another word.

"I'm glad we understand each other." Callum said sarcastically, "You'll be divided into groups of four. You will not be changing groups, so deal with it." He pulled a list of names from his pocket and read through it quickly, "Team 1, you'll be going with Henry; Shane Connolly, Andrew DiBartolo, Darran Bisher and Marcus Leer."

"Team 2, with Arthur will be, Josh Caldwell, Tim Robson, Jack Kambouris and Brian Elliot."

Alex fidgeted, Callum was halfway through the list and Alex was starting to think that he might be stuck with a certain someone…

"Team 3, with Kyle; James Fosta, Charlie Rapetski, Kevin Lai and Maxwell Gallagher."

_Oh shit!_

"And Team 4 is with me." Callum gave them his most evil grin. "Alex Rider, Tom Harris, Michael Cook and Daniel Jenkins."

Alex groaned to himself. Great. He was on the same team as Michael, already he could see disaster ahead…

"Well, what are you waiting for? Get moving!" Callum shouted, causing the boys to jump and quickly scurrying to their leaders.

"You boys," Callum smiled humourlessly, "Are stuck with me. Put these on." He tossed four sets of blindfolds at them.

"What for, sir?" Tom asked, looking confused as he held the piece of material with one hand.

Alex didn't like the look on Callum's face at all, "Well we're doing an Orienteering exercise, which involves finding your way back to camp. You can't do that if you already know what way to go…"

"What if we get lost? We won't be able to find you and this place is _huge_." Tom protested.

Alex nodded in agreement, "He's right."

"And that is why I am going to accompany you, but don't expect any help from me, I'll just be following you." Callum answered impatiently, he pulled an object out of his pocket, "GPS Tracker, in case you really _do_ get lost. If you do, that means you lot aren't gonna want to see what's in store for you."

"I will be taking you to your starting point. From then on expect no help from me." Callum continued, raising an eyebrow when nobody moved. "Blindfolds on maggots!" He snarled.

Alex hesitated before he pulled the black piece of material over his eyes – it was horrible being in the dark, he couldn't a thing at all. A rope was thrust into his hands followed by Callum's cold voice, "Keep a hold of your rope because if you let go, I'm not stopping to wait for you."

"This is so crap." Michael moaned from somewhere in front of him. Great. Just bloody brilliant, he had been placed behind the jerk.

"Watch your language boy, or you'll spend tonight standing outside on one leg. And I hear it's going to be a cold night tonight."

They started moving; Alex was careful where he placed his feet, not wanting to be sent sprawling by some object lying on the ground. He realised that there was some sort of dead weight on the end of the rope, which probably meant he was last in the line.

"There's something snagged onto the rope here." He said, not exactly sure which direction Callum was, but was pretty sure the scout was somewhere in front of him, they were moving in that direction anyway.

"Oh that's nothing, just the backpacks you guys will need with food rations, a compass and your instructions. So Rider, you make sure you don't drag it through the mud or anything." Callum said silkily.

Alex grunted, "Great…"

* * *

What seems like hours, but only turned out to be forty-five minutes later, Callum finally ordered tem to stop and remove their blindfolds. Alex bit back a laugh when his eyes adjusted to the light, and he saw the state everyone was in – Tom had leaves in his hair and mud-caked boots; Michael's hair looked like a bird's nest and he had some scratches on his arms and legs, probably from running through bushes; and Daniel, well he looked even more terrible then Michael and Tom combined.

"What are you laughing at?" Tom grumbled, "You should see what you look like."

Alex looked down, and sure enough he had mud caked up to his ankles, "At least I don't have leaf-hair." He protested.

Tom ran a nervous finger through his hair, "Leaf hair!?" He exclaimed unhappily.

Alex nodded seriously and grinned, "You should see it, really." He laughed, and then put on a mock horrified look, "Ewww you have something wriggling in your hair." He said in a high pitched voice.

Tom looked aghast and began combing his fingers through his hair, furiously trying to pry the leaves and whatever else that was in his hair out.

"I was just kidding you know." Alex raised an eyebrow as he started at his friend. He didn't think that his friend cared that much about his hair.

Tom shot Alex a dirty look before untying the backpacks from the end of the rope and tossing one of them to Alex.

Michael and Daniel stared pointedly at Tom, who shrugged, "Get your own."

Callum tapped his foot impatiently, "You better get started, did I forget to mention that the last team back gets to do the dishes?"

Alex bent over and unzipped his back pack. As Callum had said, there was a canteen of water, some bars of food, a rusty old compass and a four paged booklet detailing the directions they were suppose to take to get back to camp. One thing Alex noticed as he flipped through the booklet that it did not specify how far each step was.

Alex glanced at the rest of his team and smiled thinly, "West is that way." He said as he glanced down at his compass. "40 steps," He muttered as he started to walk in that direction with Tom, Callum, and the other two following him.

_38, 39, 40._

Alex stopped and glanced at the booklet, its next instruction was to take 42 steps north. He looked up as Michael and Daniel walked past him and continued, "What are you doing?" He asked, sounding irritated.

"Forty steps, not thirty-two." Michael answered smugly.

"No, it's forty _normal _steps, not forty clown steps." Alex retorted, Tom nodded in agreement with him.

Michael crossed his arms and glared at Alex with contempt, "There is no way I'm going to follow you around."

Alex shrugged, "I'm not making you, just don't blame me when Callum has to go and fetch you from wherever you are."

Michael suddenly seemed less sure of himself as he glanced at Callum, who was glaring right back at him. Taking the hint, Michaela and Daniel grudgingly re-traced his steps and followed Alex as he continued walking.

Alex smiled with satisfaction, "Good."

* * *

It took them precisely 5 hours, 56 minutes and 23 seconds, to get back to camp – according to Tom's watch, but then again, it had a habit of being faulty. To their surprise they were the first one's back at camp, but again it wasn't much of a surprise with the fourteen year old super spy urging them on and telling that he would leave them behind if they stopped.

Each of them were drenched in sweat and looked like a housekeeper's worse nightmare as they trudged into the campsite.

Tom pulled his shirt off and used it to wipe the sweat from his brow. "Why." He started angrily, "Did it take us that long to get back when it only took as forty minutes to get there in the first place?"

Callum heard this and smiled – not the nice sort of smile you get when you've done something right, but instead it was one of those evil smiles you would see on villains from Star Wars or Harry Potter or something. "Oh you took the long way around. You see you've been wandering in a big giant spiral for the last six hours."

Michael and Daniel looked like they were going to faint. Alex, on the other hand started to look severely pissed off, "We wasted all that time on walking in a BIG circle?" He bellowed.

Callum hardly looked moved by the look on Alex's face, which showed how ignorant he was to what Alex was truly capable of… "I wouldn't say circle, more of a spiral." He said gleefully.

Alex rolled his eyes, "So we're going to just wait around for the rest to come back?"

Callum looked like he couldn't care less, "I don't care. Do whatever you want, just don't bother me."

"Whatever you say…" Alex glanced at Tom, who was still half naked. "Wanna go looking around?" Alex asked.

Tom shrugged, "Let me go grab a shirt first." He said before retreating back to the tent.

Alex glanced at Michael and Daniel before deciding that he would rather not be in their company and turned to follow Tom into the tent. By then, his friend was already pulling a plain black t-shirt over his head and Alex could not resist the urge to jump behind his friend and yell, "Boo!"

Tom jumped and whirled around, arms still stuck through the sleeves of his shirt. "Alex! That's not funny."

Alex grinned, "Sure it's not. Err… you should put your shirt on properly." He pointed out.

Tom flushed and quickly gave the shirt a final tug before it slipped over his head. "So what are you doing here?"

"Waiting for you."

"Ah, well I've finished so let's get going."

Alex nodded and left the tent with Tom following him. To his relief, Michael and Daniel had disappeared into their own tent and Callum, in his.

"So, where to, o might spy." Tom smirked.

Alex resisted the urge to hit his best friend on the head, "Let's go to the creek."

"Wise choice, o wise one."

Alex rolled his eyes, "Stop it!" He exclaimed before he chased his friend down the path. He smiled to himself, it was a little like old times, before MI6 came and ruined his life. Sometimes he wondered, did he really belong in the normal world, to have normal friends and a normal life? Or was he meant to be a spy for the rest of his life? To be used by MI6 until they found another toy to play with.

Alex sighed and shook his head to clear the negative thoughts. MI6 weren't here now, and they weren't about to ruin his fun.

The two friends reached the creek soon after, having fully sprinted to the location. They slowed down and regained their breath as both were panting like a dog.

Alex sat down on one of the rocks and took his shoes off before dangling his tired feet into the creek. Tom had wandered off further downstream, looking bored at of his wits.

"Hey Alex, come check this out! There's like another path over here." Tom called out suddenly.

Alex, who had been going into a trance-like state, snapped out of it and turned to look at his friend with a quizzical look on his face.

"That's interesting…" He replied, "Wanna have a look around?"

Tom nodded eagerly, "What else is there to do around here?"

Alex looked at him before agreeing that he had a point, what was there to do apart from being tortured by the scouts?

"You're right. For once." He grinned as they started making their way down the path, it looked relatively similar to the one they had taken to the creek, yet from Alex's observations, this one was less used and the forest was more overgrown.

The two boys walked down the trail, chatting eagerly to each other about the most random of topics, for example, what would the prime minister look like if he was a female.

"I can't believe you've met him. What's he like?" Tom asked curiously.

Alex shrugged, "Well… the first time I met him I kinda shot a gun in his direction… I don't think he was too impressed with that. The time after that, I saw him at a conference. We didn't talk."

Tom's eyes widened, "You were going to shoot the prime minister?"

"Haven't I already told you this?" Alex said, raising an eyebrow.

Tom half shrugged, "I didn't believe you at the time…"

"Oh."

They continued in awkward silence for a couple of metres when Alex heard the angry voices drifting towards them. Without bothering to warn his friend, Alex grabbed the back of Tom's shirt and dragged him behind one of the bushes. Alex ignored his friend's protests, placing his index finger to his lips in an attempt to get Tom to quieten down...

Tom realised that Alex was telling him to shut up and his protesting ceased, just as four men came into view. Beside him, he could feel Alex stiffen up as the men walked past their little hiding spot, but he was confused as to why his friend felt intimidated by the four men.

Alex, meanwhile, was shooting daggers at the four men. He had recognised them the moment he saw them, and his jaw would've literally dropped to the ground if his body had the right sort of anatomy to do so. It took a moment for him to recompose himself before his mood swung to anger.

_I can't believe it._

_What the HELL are they doing here?_

_Wolf, Eagle, Snake, and what's Fox doing here? I thought he's MI6 now…_

The group soon disappeared from sight and Alex waited another minute before he finally stood up with a furious scowl on his face.

Tom noticed this and backed away, when Alex was angry, nothing good ever happened "You know those people?"

"Let's just say they're friends from the past." Alex replied coldly.

"I see." Tom said neutrally, "You guys must've been the best of friends." He continued dryly.

Alex winced.

"Alright, alright. Do you remember how I told you about the SAS training?" Alex said as he made his way back onto the trail again.

Tom nodded.

"Yeah, well they were the people that trained me." Alex said. "And made my life hell." He added as an afterthought. Sure he had worked with two members of K-Unit, Snake and Fox, but that still didn't mean that he didn't hold a grudge against them for the way they had treated him at Brecon's Beacon. Not that he blamed them, but still it would've helped if they had been a little nicer…

It was Tom's turn to wince, "I understand how you feel now."

They stopped as they reached another clearing, which turned out to be another campsite. It looked just about the same as the boy's campsite except for the fact that this one was about 2 times smaller and didn't have a run-down shower block.

"Must be their camp." Tom remarked as he took in the sight.

Alex nodded with agreement, "Sure looks like it." He spent a few moments to familiarise himself with the campsite when he suddenly remembered the gadgets he had brought along.

Alex's eyes lit up as he turned to Tom with a sly grin on his face,

"I think I should give them a welcoming committee."

* * *

Alex raced back to camp, ignoring his tiredness as he scrambled through the bush. Tom followed him, though he seemed half as enthusiastic as Alex, after all he was still exhausted after their long walk through the forest and Alex hadn't bothered to mention his grand plan as he forced Tom to run back with him.

It seemed that while they had been away, Teams 2 and 3 had returned from their exercise. Arthur and Kyle were no where in sight – probably in their tent with Callum.

Alex went into his and Tom's tent, and started rummaging around in his bag as a tired Tom entered the tent, puffing.

"What are you doing now, Alex?" Tom asked as he dropped onto his sleeping bag.

"Getting this, " He said, pulling a tube of acne cream from his bag.

Tom looked confused, "You don't have acne." He said as he saw the label on the tube

"It's not for my face, silly." Alex grinned, "This stuff saved my life on that Stormbreaker mission."

"From what? An outbreak of zits?" Tom asked, looking frustrated that his friend wasn't giving him a straight answer.

"No actually it was a man-o-war." Alex shuddered as he recalled the incident in the tank, but then again it couldn't be worse then being threatened to be dissected, or being put in a hospital run by mad people who wanted to take his organs and sell them to the highest bidder…

"Huh?"

"It's not actually acne cream." Alex sighed seeing as Tom didn't seem to be any closer to figuring out what he was talking about. "Once applied, it dissolves metal. Don't worry; it's perfectly harmless to skin. I got Smithers to re-fill it, thought it might come in handy…"

It was true, the last time Alex had been at Mi6 headquarters, he had cornered the gadget-maker and asked him to replace some of the gadgets he had like using on his missions. Smithers had been reluctant at first, but after a pair of puppy dog eyes, he couldn't help but agree.

"Oh." Tom stared at the tube of cream with fascination, "So what are you going to do with it?"

"You'll see."

* * *

Wolf yawned and stretched his muscles as he dropped the bucket of fish – which would soon become their dinner – on to the ground. The four men had gone out fishing a few hours earlier at the small lake some few kilometres away and had just returned after everyone got sick of listening to Eagle gloat about how big his fish was compared to the other's catch. The gloating had resulted in him being pushed into the lake by an irritated Snake (the person, not the animal, Wolf thought amusingly to himself).

Wolf went over and joined Snake and Fox, who were trying to start a fire with a pack of matches. Eagle had stormed off into his tent as soon as they reached the campsite.

"So Fox, how's MI6 working for ya?" Snake asked as Wolf joined them.

Fox shrugged although MI6 was strict about revealing who he worked for, he had insisted on sharing the information with his former teammates. "Well it's interesting, I guess. I didn't fancy getting shot though – that wasn't fun." He made a face.

Wolf snorted, "Since when was it? Besides, what were you doing that was so dangerous?"

"Ah, you know, just doing a mission for MI6… Y'know I ran into Cub during that mission…" Fox watched his ex-teammates carefully, waiting for their reaction.

Snake looked surprised, Wolf just stared blankly at Fox.

"What was he doing with you?" Wolf raised an eyebrow. He remembered how much he had resented the boy when he had first 'joined' K-Unit, but he had come to respect the kid, especially after he had been crazy enough to kick him out of a plane. "Actually don't answer that." He said when Fox opened his mouth to reply ,"I don't want to know – the last time I saw him he had been recovering in hospital after he snowboarded down a mountain on a bloody _ironing board."_

Snake gaped at him, he apparently hadn't heard the tale from Wolf before. "Is Cub nuts or something? I mean I thought he was a little strange at Brecon's…"

The three men fell into silence, each lost in their own thoughts… That was until they were interrupted by a yell and Eagle came storming out of his tent with an annoyed look on his face, "OK, which one of you thought it would be funny to stick_ this_ in my tent?" He asked a disgusted look on his face as he gestured at the lizard which he was holding by the tail.

"Put that down!" Snake exclaimed, "It probably just crawled into your tent or something, right guys?"

Wolf and Fox nodded quickly.

Eagle made a low growl before he stalked over to the bushes and dropped the lizard there.

"Geez Eagle, scared of a little lizard?" Wolf looked highly amused.

"You're one to talk, you're scared of heights." Eagle retorted.

Wolf rolled his eyes and went to sit on one of the foldable chairs that had been set out around the campfire.

What he didn't know was that a certain somebody had tampered with his chair earlier…

"What the hell?!"

Wolf cursed as the chair suddenly gave way and the whole thing fell apart – with him on top of it.

"What happened to this pot?" Fox exclaimed as he raised the tilted the pot on it's side and peered through the huge hole in the bottom of it.

"Shut up Fox." Wolf's face slowly turned an interesting shade of red and the rest of K-Unit took that as a sign that the man was going to spontaneously combust and started backing away from him warily as their leader untangled himself from the remains of the chair. He turned and walked over to one of the other chairs and gave it a kick. The chair fell apart.

He slowly, and menancingly turned to Eagle,

"Eagle!"

Eagle looked as confused as ever.

"What?"


	4. Of Water Balloons And 'Accidents'

* * *

**Chapter 4**

**Of Water Balloons And 'Accidents'**

* * *

"What?" Eagle repeated again, dumbly. Why was Wolf looking at him like that?

Fox and Snake were shaking their heads frantically, but Eagle didn't seem to get the meaning of their 'subtle' gestures, he'd never been one to figure what was going on until the last moment. The two sighed, ready to step in case Wolf decided to take things a little too far.

"Oh, by the way Wolf, why did you break the chair for?"

Even Wolf was gaping at Eagle, no one could be that stupid, but then he remembered to look angry again and fixed Eagle with a glare, "You did it, didn't you?" He put every amount of fury into those five words.

Eagle raised an eyebrow as he stared blankly at Wolf, oblivious to the man's tone. "Do what? Break the chair? I certainly did not."

"Sure… and Snake runs around in a tutu." Wolf said sarcastically.

"Oi!" Snake looked offended.

Eagle laughed at the mental image, imagining his Scottish team-mate running around in a tutu, "I swear I didn't do it." He said seriously when he got over his mental image, "I've got nothing to gain if the chairs are broken."

_OK, Eagle's not that great of an actor ._Wolf thought, alarmed at the thought. Then, it came to him. Of course! It was a possibility.

"_What are those kids ever going to do to you?"_ Wolf said coolly, mocking what Eagle had said the previous night.

"OK, what has kids got to do with this and the chair breaking?" Eagle was becoming even more confused by the moment and why the hell was Wolf glaring at him?

Wolf rolled his eyes and said through gritted teeth, "It's what you said last night! They meddled with the chairs. They friggin dismantled it!"

"Don't forget about the pot." Fox added, at risk of his own life.

Eagle stared, "You sure you didn't just break it or something? What would kids be doing in our campsite?" He inquired. "And how can they do that? It's not like they're superman or something."

"Oh I don't know." Wolf said dryly, "Because they're bloody teens?!" He glared at his team-mate as though it had been him who had brought this upon them all.

But, of course, Eagle was all too use to Wolf's glare by now, having spent the last two years of his life with the guy and seemed hardly affected by it, all the glare had managed to accomplish was to irritate Eagle just a little more. "Really, you should stop with the glaring already, it's getting really freaky."

Wolf let out a frustrated sigh, "It was either you, or those pests next door that did this." He gestured at the sad bits of metal that had previously been chairs.

Eagle shrugged, "Or they could've been faulty in the first place."

"I've used those chairs a million times." Wolf huffed, turned and stalked off.

Snake stared at Wolf's retreating back, "Anyone want to stop him before Hurricane Wolf storms in on the boys and attempts a slaughter?" He asked, sounding anxious. Snake was the softie out of the four men though despite that, if he comes running after you with a needle in his hands, its best if you take off in the opposite direction.

Fox nodded sympathetically, "We should, those poor teens won't know what hit them when Hurricane Wolf comes blowing past."

Eagle looked baffled, "Why does he think I did it?" He asked the two men.

Fox just sighed and shook his head wearily.

"You." Fox proclaimed, "Are an idiot." He gave Eagle a cuff on the head before hurrying after Wolf.

"I'm not that stupid!" Eagle called after him.

* * *

Alex and Tom were in fits of laughter as they watched Wolf and Eagle bicker, though Alex had to try his best to muffle the sounds of their laughter as they were hidden behind a couple of bushes.

They shrank back as Wolf went past them, but the man was too focused in his own world to notice the two boys.

"That was good." Tom said, his eyes gleaming as he waved the tube of acne cream around.

Alex grinned; he was savouring the look on Wolf's face when the chair had collapsed. He had use just the tiniest amount of cream on the joints of the chair, the cream would've sizzled through the metal, but there hadn't been enough for the chair to collapse completely. "Ah, revenge is sweet, I've got more tricks up my sleeve." His smile looked so evil that he would've given Callum a run for his money.

"That bad, huh?" Tom smirked at his friend, again shrinking back as Fox and Snake rushed by their hiding spot.

Alex nodded, "You have no idea." He said when the pair had past them and was off in the distance.

Tom grinned, "The look on Eagle's face when he found the lizard was hilarious."

"Kinda the look on yours when someone put a plastic spider in your bed at camp in Year 6?" Alex laughed as the two teens straightened and began to make their way down the trail – out of sight of course, in case the three members of K-Unit decided to head back to their own camp.

Tom looked hurt, "I thought it was an actual spider! It was big and…" He shuddered, then narrowed his eyes at Alex, "You did it, didn't you?"

It was Alex's turn to look hurt, "How could you accuse me of that!"

Tom gave him a look.

Alex smiled and dropped his hurt look, "Alright, I did it." He said, "Hey you're no angel either!" He continued when Tom continued to stare at him, "I do recall that time at the hundred metres sprint when you pushed me into the mud just as the gun went off."

"That," Tom started, "Was before we became friends." Alex had only met Tom in Year Three when they had been big competitors at the athletics carnivals, it had only been until Year five when they'd finally become friends yet still tried to out best each other on the sporting field.

Alex shrugged, "You still did it though."

Tom rolled his eyes, "It didn't help that you were such a git."

"I was not!"

"You'd be surprised."

"I wasn't the arrogant one strutting around after winning a race."

"That was not strutting! It was… walking with my head held up high?"

Alex snorted at this, "Which is practically the same thing, geez."

Tom gave his a friend a hurt look; boy was he getting good at that, "I'm not that stupid!" He said, mimicking Eagle's comment earlier.

Alex burst out laughing, "Uh huh. Tell me what you got for that English assignment again?" He raised an eyebrow. He'd recalled the teacher handing out the assignments on his first day back since…. since _that _mission in Australia. Absent minded, he rubbed the old bullet wound directly above his heart.

If Tom noticed it, he didn't comment about it instead, he decided to answer Alex's question, "I got a D, but I recall you didn't _get _a mark."

Alex smiled wryly, "Touché. But_ I_ had an excuse." He said triumphantly.

"Oh, you mean the pneumonia." Tom replied dryly.

"More like saving t he East coast of down under." Alex snapped back, "They're telling my they're not going to try to use me again… Somehow I doubt that."

Tom looked sad at Alex's comment, "Man that sucks. Don't they have some kind of law against it?" He asked, seeming genuinely concerned.

"Ha! As if that's going to stop them." Alex remarked bitterly, "This is MI6 we're talking about. They think they're above the law. Heck I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the stuff they do is illegal."

Tom shrugged, "It was only an idea." He said.

Afterwards, they lapsed into silence as they neared the creek. They could hear Wolf's distinctive tones as the SAS man yelled some colourful curses at his Unit. Alex jerked his thumb in the direction of the tress that should lead them over to the other path without getting noticed by the furious Wolf. The pair tried their best to claw through the thick forest without making much sound, but while they succeeded at that, they failed miserably at keeping themselves unscratched. Alex didn't really care, he was use to the minor scratches, Tom on the other hand, wasn't, and was busy fuming about the particularly long scratch he had received when he had clawed his way through the bush.

As they hurried back to the campsite, the air was starting to slowly get cooler. Eager to get as far away as possible from Wolf and the rest of K-Unit, they didn't spot Michael until he jumped out in front of them with his gang appearing behind them.

"Wow, you've got so many supporters now." Alex said dryly as he surveyed the extra three boys; James, Charlie and Kevin. He was kind of surprised at them; they didn't seem the kind of people who would hang out with Cook and his mates. "So what do they do? Pick your nose for you?"

James and Charlie growled and made a lunge for Alex, which he sidestepped with ease. Surprised, the two boys overbalanced and ended up sprawled on the ground in front of Alex who smiled wryly, "Not so good at keeping on their feet either." He commented.

Michael narrowed his eyes at Alex, "Shut up Rider," He started, "If you know what's good for you."

Alex returned Michael's look, "And what if I don't want to? I know perfectly well what's good for me, and it's definitely not looking at your face!"

Tom sniggered and quickly drew his arm up to block a punch from Charlie. Alex may be the better at fighting, but Tom knew quite a few things about karate and he really didn't care if he had to fight dirty so, he brought his knee up and kneed Charlie where it hurt.

Alex, meanwhile, spun and lashed out at Daniel as the other boy tried to tackle him. A punch to the face sent the boy flying back and Alex quickly turned his attention back to Michael, "Who taught them how to fight? You?" He scoffed and turned to call Tom, "Come on, let's get out of here." Alex said as he sidestepped the angry bully and walked right past him without a second glance.

Tom followed, shooting Michael a glare as he passed, the pair ran quickly back to the campsite. By the time they had arrived, all four teams were back and the other boys were wandering around the campsite looking bored out of their minds. The four camp leaders were no where in sight.

"Wonder where they went off to." Tom murmured, he too noticing the absence of the four men.

"No idea." Alex replied, though he took another glance around the camp, for some reason feeling nervous as he did so.

"Probably plotting something evil this very moment." Tom assumed.

"Uh huh." Alex replied, somewhat distracted.

Tom noticed his friend's distraction and waved a hand in front of his face, "Hello, anyone home?"

Alex batted Tom's hand away and gave his friend a glare worthy of Callum, "Argh! Stop that, it's really irritating you know?"

Tom grinned, "Yep."

Alex gave Tom a well-deserved cuff on the head, the look on his face showed that he was not so amused at his friend's immaturity.

"Aw, lighten up grandpa." Tom said teasingly when he saw Alex's expression, "I was only kidding with ya."

Alex snorted, "You're not really good at kidding around either."

"Ooo snap." Tom said light-heartedly. "And look what the dogs dragged in." He smirked as he stared past Alex's shoulder.

Alex turned to look what his friend was looking it and his expression changed to mimic Tom's as well. "Took you long enough." He commented as he spotted Michael and his 'gang' returning after their quick brush off from Alex and Tom.

Michael sneered, "One of these days…"

"One of these days, what?" Alex responded, "You'll bore me to death with useless death threats that you'll never be able to attempt?"

Michael narrowed his eyes, his eyes were now like slits as he glared at Alex, "No, you're little 'sicknesses' are going to kill you with, without help from me."

"Ooh, I'm sooo scared." Alex said mockingly, "Forgive me o god of sickness." Then his eyes landed on Daniel and his grin broadened, "Wow, Daniel you finally have an excuse to get your face fixed up."

The boy, who had been punched by Alex earlier, glowered and turned red.

"Watch it… If you go any redder they'll probably mistaken your head as a tomato." Alex said seriously.

"Back off Rider." Michael said coolly, "if you know what's good for you…"

Alex faked a yawn, "The last time you said that, it didn't turn out very good for you or your mates. So I suggest you walk away before I'm forced to do something that you might regret."

Michael turned a lovely shade of red before storming off, with his 'friends' in tow.

Tom turned to grin at Alex, "Now that's how you d-…"

He was cut off as a something brown and round whizzed past his head and impacted with a loud _bang _when it struck the tree directly in front of him.

It took Alex a moment to realise it was a mini water balloon, filled with a substance that definitely wasn't clean water. He turned around and ducked as another headed in their direction. Tom wasn't so lucky this time and his shoulder was covered in a brown liquid as the balloon burst.

"Oh gross." Tom muttered quietly to himself.

There were startled cries from those who had been hit by the first round of balloons, and Alex swore he heard someone yell out, "My face! It got me in the face! Ewww."

Some of the brighter boys rushed into their tents for cover, while the not-so-bright ones, which of course, included Michael, started panicking and unsure of what to do.

Alex and Tom stayed where they were, though Tom was desperately trying to convince his friend to get back into the tent.

Alex resisted the urge to roll his eyes at Tom as a third barrage of balloons almost hit the pair, one of them burst at Alex's feet, soaking his trainers in muddy water. "It's only mud and water, you can wash it off later." He hissed, "C'mon, I bet Callum and all that are behind this."

Tom stopped his complaining as soon as Alex had mentioned Callum; Tom hated the older man, even though he'd only known him for less then two days. Making a low growl in his throat, he said, "Got a plan?"

Alex grinned and nodded, "If you don't mind helping out…" He had a feeling Tom wasn't going to like his plan…

"Just ask away."

"You're not going to like this… but I want you to run in the middle of the camp and start making a big commotion, alright?"

"That's easy enough." Tom shrugged as he went and did what Alex had told him to do.

"ARGHH! My leg!" He cried out, clutching it and scrunching his face up in imaginary pain, "My sporting days are over! Nooooo!!! I'm never going to get that football scholarship." Tom sobbed into his hands.

Alex rolled his eyes, talk about over-doing it, but it seemed to have worked because everyone's attention was on Tom, and the attack seemed to have stopped temporarily. Alex went into the trees, trying his best to keep his trainers from making squelching sounds as he walked. While the balloons had been thrown about, Alex had kept his eyes open for where the balloons had come from so he now had a general idea of were one of the attackers were.

Sure enough, he found one of the twins, he couldn't tell which, crouching behind a boulder with a small bucket of water balloons next to him.

Alex managed to sneak up directly behind the camp leader before he said loudly, "It's not nice to pick on people smaller then you."

Kyle, or Henry – Alex still hadn't figured out which twin it was- jumped visibly, uttering a curse as he did so.

Alex grinned as the other man spun around to look at him with a startled look on his face, "C'mon, get up. You've had your fun; I wonder how long it'll take to get the mud out of your hair." Alex said cockily. He had two of the balloons clutched in his hand and kicked the bucket out of reach. "I don't think mud's really your colour, but you can save yourself from the embarrassment if you call them off."

The red-head muttered a colourful string of words before grunting, "Alright, alright." He stood as he pressed two fingers to his lips and whistled loudly. "Guys, our game is up." He said, sounding a little disgruntled as he emerged into the campsite with Alex trailing him.

Callum, Arthur and the other twin emerged from the trees, with identical looks of disappointment on their faces. Callum's expression changed when he spotted Alex.

"You figured us out?" Callum said incredously as he reached him and the twin.

Alex shrugged and looked innocently at Callum, "I guess you can say that. He wasn't doing a very good job at hiding the whole hiding thing... I managed to get within arm's length of him." He smiled as he 'accidentally' dropped the two water balloons which he had been holding which both burst at the startled leaders' feet,

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry, it must've slipped!"


	5. Oh Crap!

* * *

**Chapter 5**

**Oh Crap!**

* * *

"Let me at them!"

Wolf growled at his companions as Snake and Fox tried to pull him back. He wasn't happy, and he was making it perfectly clear to his two other companions. Trying to stop an angry Wolf, whether it was the actual animal or human, wasn't precisely the smartest idea as Fox found out when Wolf backhanded him in the jaw.

Fox groaned and staggered back, letting go of Wolf's arm in the process. "You can't!" He managed to say through the pain, "They're just kids."

Wolf tried to shake Snake off, but the other man was just as stubborn as he was and clung on. "You're not getting rid of me that easily." The Scottish man grinned.

"I don't care if they're kids or animals." Wolf snapped, "They mess with me and they will pay."

Fox moved in front of Wolf, arms crossed with a scowl on his face, "Wolf, this is what got us into trouble last time when we were in Iraq, your temper. They sent us back to Brecon's to re-do training, adding Cub to the team as well. We had to work our asses off before they agreed to let us back into the field."

Wolf tried to sidestep Fox, almost dragging Snake along as well, but Fox mirrored his steps, effectively blocking Wolf's path. "They'll pay." Wolf muttered as he again tried to get past Fox, having some difficulty trying to get Snake off his arm.

"No." Fox said firmly, again moving to block off Wolf's path. "Go back!"

"Not until those little buggers paid for what they did to that chair!" Wolf snarled.

_And his dignity. _Fox thought, half amused. "The Sergeant won't be happy if you injured civilians." He stated logically, "Especially kids."

Wolf made one last growl, but quietened down a bit, enough so that Snake trusted himself to let go without Wolf taking off like a maniac.

"Finally." Snake muttered as he stared at Wolf, "You don't know how hard it is keeping you back." The words left his tongue just as Wolf darted past Fox, who'd been caught unaware as well.

"Spoke too soon." Fox muttered as he wheeled around to give chase. Although the youngest out of the three men, he had been the fastest in the Unit, managing just under fourteen seconds in one hunderd metres, when he had been fitter of course.

Fox caught up with Wolf just as the other man was about to start down the path leading in the direction of the kids' camp. Grabbing Wolf's arm, Fox hissed, "Wolf, if I have to get Snake to help me tie you up and drag you back to our campsite, I will." He said threatenly.

Wolf stared, flabbergasted at his team mate and former team mate, "You wouldn't."

Snake, who was a few metres behind nodded in agreement with Fox, "I'll do what I have to do."

"And you know what I'm capable of." Fox said slyly. "If you do recall the incident with the face paint…" He trailed off, grinning at Wolf's expression.

Wolf sighed and threw his hands in the air in defeat. He did know what Fox was capable of, and killing a bunch of brats wasn't worth it. "You know, I never really forgave you for that."

Fox grinned evilly, "And I've still got the pictures to show our dear SAS mates."

"Hey! That's blackmail!"

* * *

Night fell early that day. A disgruntled and recently cleaned teen spy, a fact that was not known by his observer, hardly noticed this as he stumbled into his tent after he'd done his 'punishment' for dropping muddy water balloons onto Callum's feet.

Arthur, or Python as he was usually known as, watched with interest from the shadows of the trees as the boy moved into his tent and knew that despite Dingo's protests, Alex was the perfect candidate for MI6 and whatever they were up to. He had the right skills and _definitely_ the right attitude. Python grinned a little at this, it was funny seeing Dingo so worked up because of one fourteen year old. The other man did bring this all upon himself when he had accepted the request without talking with the rest of the Unit beforehand.

"Yo, Python."

Python rolled his eyes and gave Jackal a gentle punch as the other man settled himself beside him, "You know better then that not to use my codename here, _Kyle."_

Jackal smirked, "The kiddies are asleep now, who cares?" The red head said casually.

"And you wonder why we never get the good assignments." Python muttered under his breath.

"Sorry, what was that?"

"Nothing," Python replied quickly, "I was just wondering why you gave us all up so easily, I mean come on, Alex is like half your size, you couldn't even manage him?"

"I don't want to get us all sued for breaking the kid's arms off." Jackal growled. "And he threatened to put mud through my hair!"

Python snorted, "You're a soldier, you've got to be use to the mud by now after all that time you spent on the assault course. You were practically in love with it."

"I don't mind the mud, but I'm not going to humiliate myself in front of a bunch of kids. They'll never let me live that down."

"You only have to know them for another week and five days."

"I'd rather not be humiliated." Jackal muttered.

"You were outwitted by a kid half your size, that's not humiliation enough?" Python raised an eyebrow, grinning at his team mate's expense.

"That kid's not normal. I swear there's something strange about him." Jackal insisted.

Python shrugged, "Or it could just be puberty. I do agree, however, Alex is… strange. I heard some of the kids in my group talking about him. They said he gets sick often and his hardly there for school. He's actually just recently had appendicitis. Now that leads me to the question… Who in their right mind would send someone who just suffered from appendicitis to a survival camp that just so happens to be a ruse for MI6?"

"Not a normal one I'd say."

"We'll see; this hare brained scheme is MI6's after all."

* * *

_End Day 2_

_

* * *

_

"Come on, wake up sleepy head!"

Surprise, surprise, it wasn't Alex who was delightfully waking up his best mate, but instead, it was vice versa with an energetic Tom waking up a rather tired Alex.

"What's the time?" Alex groaned as he rolled on his side, his muscles were aching and screaming for more rest, which was the unfortunate result of two days of walking and running.

"Ten to six." Tom replied cherrily, "I can hear Callum's delightful tones right about now."

"Why are you so happy?"

"I've finally got a full night's rest." Tom smirked, staring at his exhausted friend, "Though I'm guessing the same can't be said for you."

"Nah, you think?" Alex said sarcastically, giving up on his mission to catch some more rest, he sat up slowly, "Callum forced me to clean all the stuff in the equipment shed and you don't know how bloody dirty all those things are."

Tom winced, "I feel sorry for you. I mean it was just a small puddle of mud on his shoes."

"Exactly." Alex said, "He acted as though it was dog shit or something like it." He sighed, running his fingers through his rather messy bed hair, "What I want to know is what I've done to deserve his hate."

"Maybe because you act like a survivor know-it-all?"

Alex rolled his eyes and threw a rather muddy shoe in Tom's direction. Tom tried to avoid the shoe, but in such a small area, Tom barely had enough room to move around let alone dodging a shoe and ended up with the shoe striking him in the chest before falling to the ground, "Oi!" He exclaimed.

"Serves you right." Alex replied smugly, "Now can I have my shoe back?"

"No."

"I'm sorry, what did you say? I swore that was a no."

"That's exactly what I said." Tom snapped back.

"Touchy, aren't we." Alex smirked as he unzipped his sleeping bag and sat on his knees, fixing up the creases in his clothes – not that he had to, he knew they were going to get dirty and creased again anyway. "Now give, I only brought two pairs of shoes and I'm not about to ruin my good ones."

Tom shrugged, "Get it yourself. I'm going to take a shower seeing as it looks like our leaders aren't about to wake up anytime soon."

"Too early." Alex complained, "Besides they don't even have hot water."

"My hair is all grimy and it's disgusting."

Alex shook his head warily, "Honestly, you and your hair. You're like a girl for heaven's sake!"

"Am not!"

"Am too."

"Am not."

"Am too."

"Am not."

"Am too."

"Am not."

"Am too."

"Am not."

"Am too."

The bickering continued for a while before Tom finally gave in and left with his head held up high. Alex snorted and grabbed his discarded shoe before making sure that everything else was neat and tidy.

Alex glanced at his watch, twenty past six. Callum must be running a late schedule today because he couldn't hear any movement outside the tent, not even the faint stirring of the wind. Alex sighed; he wondered what Jack was up to. Probably sleeping of course, it was a Saturday after all.

He sighed again, wishing he hadn't agreed to this. He had plenty of schoolwork to catch up on and the only thing good that had come out of this was the fact that he could piss off K Unit and spend some time with Tom. Alex gave a sharp intake of breath as he rubbed his chest. His old bullet wound had been bothering him since last night and he had a feeling he was overdoing himself. He made a mental note to slow down a little – Jack would kill him if he ended up in hospital again because of some cardiovascular problem. He could imagine it right now and gave a small grim smile.

Oh well, two weeks here means that's two weeks without MI6 bothering him.

* * *

"Good morning, squirts." Callum had growled in such a way that meant he wanted to wring someone out. "I'd like to just go get the lot of you to go out to the wild and leave you there, but I have to teach you _how to find a water source in the wild_. It'd be no good if you had food when you can only survive for three days without that liquid."

With a snarl Wolf would be proud of, he started along one of the many trails that dotted the edges of camp. Arthur rolled his eyes behind Callum's back, annoyed, simply looking meaningfully from the kids and him.

Alex was at the back of the pack that had pursued their fuming leader, knowing the importance of analysing the scenery for potentially dangerous and irritating objects, like a spider web. If a silent part of him told him he was scouring for places assassins and the like could hide, he ignored it.

When the entire group had finally reached their location, Callum greeted them with an arched eyebrow and an extremely stern warning that if they dawdled any more, they were ducks. _Extremely duck-footed ones_, at that.

Michael sniggered. Callum darkened.

"Right, ma – 'men'! Here –" he pointed to the patch of dirt he was standing behind "– is an _animal_ trail. _What you do_ is _follow_ the trail, as wild animals drink from rivers or lakes. Those water sources do not need much filtering. Understood?"

A chorus of 'yea's and 'uh-uh's followed his speech.

"Groups you were in yesterday! We haven't got all day!" Alex groaned at this. "I have a one litre container for the each of you and expect you to return to camp with it."

Arthur and the twins arrived then, each carrying a bag that looked suspiciously like the one Callum took with him after storming out of camp. Alex saw the group of kids split up behind whatever leader they had the day before, and stalked off to Callum. Tom, Michael and his crone were there.

Alex had a sinking suspicion that they had to go by themselves while Callum looked on. He found that Michael had self-appointed himself leader, and taken a random path. Like a faithful puppy, Daniel followed him, leaving Tom with Alex. The other boy did not wish to stand doing nothing, so went with them.

Michael flashed a triumphant look, and Alex sighed. He followed them, even thought they were going in the opposite direction of the tracks.

* * *

After what seemed like an eternity, Michael stopped, unsure where he was. What Alex wanted to do was simply bash his head against the nearest tree. Hard.

He led their group to a trail he spotted earlier after moping behind them. Alex followed it backwards to a stream of fast-flowing water where it curved down, most likely, to a settled lake.

"Callum!" Their 'helper' emerged from the bushes, handing them their one litre bottle.

With the skill of one who had done this before, he made sure his grip on the container was tight and secure before lowering it down. The bottle met a flow of resistance, but the water still willingly flowed inside. Alex did not let go of it until he felt it was full, and picked it up. When he tried to hand it back, Callum smiled evilly.

"You filled it, you have to carry it back." And with those words, he led them back to camp.

* * *

Later that day, Alex had sneaked an object into his pocket, and snuck out. Finally, he felt it was a safe enough distance from the tents and pulled out the spray-on.

This spray-on was, in actuality, one of the many gadgets Smithers had refilled. 'Stingo', a presumed insect repellent, attracted insects by the hundreds.

He had wanted to test it, to make sure that the refill was just as effective as the one he had used at Flamingo Bay. Alex sprayed a little in the air and ran to a fair distance away. Suddenly, insects started crowding.

Alex heard a crackle of leaves and then a voice that unmistakably belonged to Wolf.

"Eagle, _shut up_!"

The super spy ran as fast as he could without making as much noise as possible. He heard K-Unit pause, and Fox's claim that 'he had heard something'. Upon appearing at K-Unit's campsite, he swore vehemently, having travelled further then he expected, and in _exactly_ the wrong place.

Alex was running out of options: Hide behind the tent or cause a distraction so he could run. The footfalls became louder and, out of sheer pressure, accidentally pushed and held the 'Stingo' container.

Snake appeared looking over his shoulder at his comrades who seemed to be farther behind him, and Alex had nothing to do but run.

And run he did.

* * *

K-Unit appeared to a crowd of insects. A _large_ crowd. There were flies and mosquitoes everywhere, their buzzing ringing in their ears.

Eagle, seemingly oblivious to this noisy parade of creatures, had spotted something resting above the leaf litter.

" 'Stingo' Insect Repellent.' " He read, then looked up at the others. "Y'know, I think we could use this."

"Eagle, no –"

"Don't spray i–"

These warnings were ignored, as Eagle held down _the button_.


	6. Masks

* * *

**Chapter 6**

**Masks**

* * *

If possible, the cloud of insects seemed to _darken _even further as insects miles away were attracted to the fine mist that came from the can of 'Stingo'. They were everywhere. Literally, in their thousands. So many that it just looked like a cloud of beating wings, antennae and dangling legs. It was impossible to tell what kind of bugs there were.

Wolf looked murderous as he too noticed the increasing amounts of insects surrounding them. And whilst the members of K-Unit, both present and former, have been subjected to many degrees of the infamous 'Wolf glare', this one was truly one of the most terrifying of them all. Snake and Fox both took an uncertain step backwards as they waited for the impending explosion.

"Eagle!"

It truly was a miracle that Wolf managed to yell that without getting a single insect in his mouth as he turned towards his fellow teammate. His dark eyes were positively furious and, as though finally coming to his senses, Eagle abruptly released the_ button _and tossed the can away.

Of course, he had to counteract that one moment of common sense with his next actions.

"They're still here." Eagle said, sounding dumbfounded before something, or rather, several _somethings_ entered his mouth and he started choking. Spluttering and waving his arms around desperately, the not-so-bright soldier finally managed to get rid of any of those horrid creatures that had invaded his mouth.

Wolf huffed. _The idiots I put up with. _He thought, pondering on why exactly he had agreed to go on this trip, knowing that he would have to rely on someone like Eagle to be useful and not cause any trouble. It seemed too much to ask.

"Move, you fools." Wolf barked as the rest of K-Unit seemed to be rooted to the spot as they stared in horrid fascination at the cloud of black insects. Wolf was already backing away, swatting his arms as insects raced by, all attracted to that one spot where 'Stingo's insect repellent' had been sprayed.

K-Unit scattered, moving away from the swarm of angry insects. They re-grouped behind the series of tents with Wolf still glaring at Eagle as the sheepish SAS man approached.

"Idiot." Snake muttered. Fox nodded, silently agreeing with the Scotsman.

"Do you ever_ think_?" Wolf demanded, when Eagle reached their small group. "A can just turns up from nowhere and none of us seems to own it. So what on earth possessed you to spray it?"

"Uh…" Eagle started his forehead scrunching as he tried to think of an explanation, "… I don't know."

Fox gave his former team mate a sympathetic look behind Wolf's back and decided to step in before the situation got out of hand, "Wolf, we should really get rid of those bugs. Eagle's verbal-lashing can come later. Right now, these bugs are our main problem." The dark haired man said sternly, grabbing Wolf's shoulders and pulling the smaller man backwards.

Wolf gave Fox an odd look, but agreed reluctantly. Though not before glaring at Eagle with a look that promised retribution.

Eagle smiled weakly and seemed to shrink away when Wolf took a menacing step forward, though a firm hand on his shoulder prevented the cranky SAS man from launching himself at Eagle. Wolf grunted something under his breath about being the 'commanding officer' and the 'chain of command'.

"Well team, any ideas for our insect problem?" K-Unit's leader asked, dark eyes looking at each and every one of the men standing there as their campsite was being attacked by _loud_, _buzzing_, _annoying _insects.

Fox, Snake and Eagle shook their heads in turn as Wolf looked at them, though each was desperately trying to think up of a suitable solution. Unfortunatly for them, bug invasion had definitely _not_ been covered during SAS training.

Wolf sighed. "Anything?"

Eagle 'hmmed' and looked thoughtful – though the rest of the group thought he looked a bit constipated as they were not use to a thoughtful looking Eagle. "I tried to fry an ant using a magnifying glass once… It worked."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Snake snapped, looking bewildered.

"Well Wolf asked for ideas for our insect problem. Ants are insects as well you know, so that particular incident came to mind. And Wolf did ask for any ideas." Eagle stated logically. Well, to his mind it looked logical. The others just stared at him incredously.

Fox groaned and hit himself in the forehead, "I think ants are the least of our problems at the moment, Eagle. We need a solution to get rid of flying insects."

"Oh." Eagle looked crestfallen as his attempt of redeeming himself failed. "I just thought…"

"But, of course!" Snake spoke up suddenly, looking excited, "Fire!"

"Fire?" Wolf asked, a glimmer of hope in his eye. This was then quickly masked.

"Fire naturally repels animals; I don't see why it won't work with insects as well." Snake stated, eyes shining like a school child who had figured out the answer to a challenging question.

"Who has the lighter?" Wolf said as he checked his pockets. The other men followed suit, turning their pockets inside out as they tried to find the elusive lighter.

"Not here sir."

"Same."

"Eagle?" The three men turned to the last member of the group who had yet to reply.

"No lighters here." Eagle said, shaking his head.

"Damnit." Wolf swore out loud, choosing another few profanities to utter out. But no one could blame him, they too were disappointed.

Fox looked at Eagle with wide eyes, disbelief evident in them, "Are you sure?"

Eagle nodded, "Absolutely, positively."

"Sure sure?"

Eagle nodded again and was about to say another ridiculous phrase that substituted for 'Yes, I am sure' when realisation crossed his face. "There's a pocket here." He said, indicating the breast pocket of his shirt.

Fox rolled his eyes heavenward, wondering which deity up was laughing at his predicament now, "Yes Eagle. You have a pocket there." He said patronizingly, speaking to Eagle as though he was a child who had just stated the obvious.

Eagle reached into his pocket and slowly pulled out a small object, "I found it!" He said gleefully as he waved the lighter around in the air excitedly.

The look on Wolf's face was almost comical – the man looked like he wanted to murder his fellow team mate for his stupidity, yet also, at the same time, wanted to hug Eagle for finding the object they needed to fix their bug problem.

"I found it! I found it!" Eagle sang, performing a small victory dance while Snake groaned and hid his face in his hands.

"Found it! Found it –"

"…Eagle."

"I found it! I found it!"

"Eagle!"

"Found it, found it!"

"EAGLE!" Wolf bellowed, his yell being so loud that Fox and Snake both winced and covered their ears.

"YES WOLF?" Eagle yelled back, matching Wolf's volume. The easily excited SAS soldier was still beaming at his accomplishment that he failed to notice the narrowing of Wolf's eyes – an indication that the man was going to spontaneously combust.

"SHUT UP YOU NIMWIT!"

"OK!"

Wolf exhaled noisily, his left eye was twitching as he regarded the bouncing ma… no, child Wolf corrected himself in his head. Eagle may look like a fully-grown man, but he still had the mental capacity of a child. How Eagle managed to get into Special Forces was unfathomable to him.

"… So… What now?" Eagle asked.

Wolf glared.

Realisation dawned on him as he recalled Wolf's orders, "Oh… OH. Shutting up now, sir."

Wolf turned back to the other two men in their group, satisfied that at least _one _of their problems had been solved; Eagle's big mouth. Now all they had to do was deal with the bug problem.

"Here Wolf." Snake said, as though he had read Wolf's mind, and handed him a long branch. "It's dry, but not too dry that the moment the fire touches it, the whole thing goes up in flames."

Wolf wordlessly took the branch, and fixed a glare on Eagle who quickly scurried over and silently helped light the branch on fire.

Eagle, of course, was sent as the metaphorical sacrificial lamb into the midst of raging insects. His protests had been cut short by a firm glare from Wolf.

Wolf watched coolly as Eagle waved the branch around, trying to get rid of the insects that had invaded their campsite. He waited for a few minutes before taking pity on the moron and told Snake and Fox to each grab a branch and join Eagle in the war effort because, as cruel as he could be sometimes, Wolf was not entirely heartless. Eagle had needed to be taught a lesson for his slip earlier, but Wolf was sure that that lesson was now well learnt he thought to himself as he too found a branch and joined the others in ridding the campsite of insects.

* * *

After much arm waving and more burning of sticks, the last insect was finally chased out of the campsite and four relieved men sat on the ground, listening to the blissful sounds of nothingness. The ground was littered with the charred bodies of insects who had fallen prey to the flaming branches and K-Unit was well aware that a cleanup would be necessary, but that could happen later.

"I hate mosquitoes." Eagle said darkly as he gazed at the few red lumps appearing on his arms. There were a few murmurs of agreement around the camp.

Wolf just glowered.

Looking around the campsite, he spotted something lying on the ground. The abandoned can of 'Stingo's insect repellent' which had been the cause of their problems.

"Insect repellent my arse." Wolf muttered, getting to his feet and picking the can off the ground. "Stingo? What kind of brand name is that?" He asked out loud.

"Never heard of it." Fox said.

"Neither." Snake piqued, rubbing his arms as the mosquitos bites started to itch and irritate him even more.

"Hmm…" Wolf studied the can closely. The product information and label _looked _legitimate enough, but he wasn't convinced that it was actually an insect repellent, not after that disastrous display earlier. No, instead of repelling insects, it had attracted every god damn insect in the area. What the hell was going on here? Wolf was pretty sure that there was no product on the market that would attract insects like that.

Whoever had left the can there could not possibly be some schoolboy. Where on earth would a teenager get something like that?

Something fishy was going on here, and Wolf was determined to find out exactly what it was.

* * *

Alex's breath was coming in quick, short pants as he finally stopped sprinting. Bending over and placing his hands on his knees as he tried to recover from the gruelling torture he had just put his body through. Running a kilometre at a reasonable pace was easy enough; sprinting that same distance was _hell_.

"Never… doing… that… again." Alex said to himself in between deep breaths. He throat felt like it was on fire, and his lungs! Oh how they burned. Alex was just about ready to collapse to the ground and just lie there. But of course, if he did that, he would feel even worse when he tried to move again and would probably end up lying there until Callum had the sense to send out a search party for him. Alex would never live it down if Michael found him like that. So that, itself, was enough motivation for Alex to slowly go through a few warming down exercises.

'_Keep moving' _had been his former karate instructor's instructions after every particular gruelling training session. Alex had once ignored that instruction, and had ended up in a world of pain the following day, especially since they had been training for the cross country that particular day as well.

When Alex was satisfied that he had fully warmed down, he started moving again. He walked a couple of metres, before something dawned on him and he reached for his pockets, mumbling to himself as he searched for that can of Stingo.

Alex swore when his search turned up with nothing and he realised that he had stupidly dropped the can when he had fled K-Unit's campsite. He felt a little guilty for using the gadget as a means of distraction, but he had been desperate. And it had been an accident.

Alex sighed, praying that none of the men wound find the can and connect the dots. That would be disastrous.

When Alex reached the campsite, he paused and looked around cautiously. The place was empty. He didn't recall any mentions of a second activity for the day and everyone had been back when he had snuck out earlier.

Brown eyes scanned the campsite cautiously, scoffing to himself when a small voice in the back of his head told him he was being paranoid. Alex Rider was not paranoid. He was just being… careful…. Yes, that's it, careful.

_Paranoid. Ha! As if. _He thought. A sudden rustle in the bushes caused Alex's head to whip around, looking for any signs of danger. Muscles tensed as he watched the suspicious looking bush.

There was a loud squawk and a bird appeared, taking to the air as it launched itself from its hiding place.

Alex released the breath he was holding. _It's just a bird… Nothing to worry about._

Alex stayed where he was for another few minutes until he was fully certain that the clearing was safe enough to come out and that no assassins were waiting for him. He took a few tentative steps forward, and then a couple of more when nothing happened. Finally, he gained enough confidence to fully stride into the campsite, heading for his and Tom's tent.

Alex was just about a few metres away from his tent when it happened.

"RIDER!"

Even all his spy training couldn't stop Alex from flinching and jumping in surprise. Alex mentally hit himself for letting his guard down, but he was filled with dread when he realised that he recognised that voice.

"Yes, Callum?" Alex asked slowly, turning around so that he could see the enraged camp leader. He couldn't help but wince internally as he looked at the older teen, preparing himself for a verbal-lashing complete with demeaning words and several synonyms to the word 'idiot'.

Callum looked absolutely livid, so livid in fact that Alex could easily see the imaginary steam coming out of his ears. If it had been any other person, Alex would've laughed out loud and made some sarcastic comment about the look on their face, but not this time. The look on Callum's face could cower even the bravest of lions.

"Where. Have. You. Been?"

Alex absently wondered if Callum practiced that expression in front of the mirror. It was a really good one and out of all the bad guys whom Alex had met, this expression certainly took number one in the list of menacing and evil expressions.

"I went for a walk, of course." Alex replied in an 'I-couldn't-care-less' tone. He bit back a grin, teenage rebellion was fun.

Callum's glare, meanwhile, seemed to intensify when he realised that it had no effect on the_ infuriating_ teen in front of him. "Were you aware that _I_ have spent the last half an hour _looking_ for you?"

Alex blinked a couple of times. And then he blinked a couple of more, "Why, I wasn't aware that you cared." He smirked.

Callum quirked an eyebrow and gave him a look that said 'is this kid for real?', "No, actually I don't care. But seeing as your parents have entrusted us to your safety, I have to make sure that no one gets too beat up on this trip."

"That was sarcasm, Callum." Alex said, "And my _guardian _is the one who sent me to this god-forbidden place. My parents are dead. Have been ever since I was a mere baby. My uncle recently passed away. So I live with a guardian." He stated bluntly, looking at Callum right in the eye.

The surprise showed on the other male's face followed by an odd look of… was that sympathy?... before it was quickly replaced with a blank mask, "I see."

_Maybe Callum isn't a cruel bastard after all… _Alex mused. _We all hide behind masks._

"So where has everyone else gone then? While you were out looking for me." Alex asked out of curiosity. Maybe he could actually get a decent answer out of the usually cranky leader.

"Kyle, Henry and Arthur took them out for a bushwalk." Callum replied, sounding oddly subdued as he gazed at Alex.

Alex tilted his head and gave Callum an inquiring look, "What do I do in the meantime then?"

Callum seemed to snap out of his daze, gave Alex one look and said, "Take a shower. You look horrible." Before leaving a dumbfounded Alex behind as he went to his tent.

Alex gaped, running a hand through his hair before pulling it back and making a face when he realised that sweat was causing his hair to cling to his scalp and it was beginning to feel very uncomfortable.

_What? No punishment?_

"By the way Rider, you're on cleanup duty for taking off without permission." Callum's voice called from his tent.

"Spoke too soon." Alex muttered as he returned to his tent for a quick lie down before taking a nice, cold shower.

* * *

Alex had been so tired that his lie down had turned into a short nap. He had expected Tom and the rest of their group to be back, but it seemed that the leaders, minus Callum, had decided to take a long route through the wilderness as only Callum was there when Alex stepped out of his tent.

Alex's cold shower was colder then what he had expected it to be and so, it was much shorter then he had anticipated. After washing all the sweat, mud and other substances off his body, Alex got out of the shower cubicle and wrapped a towel around his waist. Walking over to the bench where he had left his clothes, Alex swore when he realised that he had forgotten to pick out a clean shirt and had instead grabbed yesterday's shirt which had dirt on it. What was worse that the shirt he had just been wearing still had sweat on it as well as mud.

Reluctant to wear either shirt again, especially after just showering, Alex changed into just his pants and slung his towel over his shoulder.

"Stupid shirts." Alex said as he walked out of the shower block, and, to his surprise, he found himself looking at Tom who was just walking into the showers.

Tom looked just as surprised to see him, "Alex. Where were you?" The taller boy asked loudly when he had recovered from his shock.

Unfortunatly for Alex, Tom had asked his question just a little too loud and everyone, including the Callum's group of cronies, in the campsite turned to look at the pair.

Alex glared at Tom for attracting everyone's attention, "I snuck out for a walk, that's all." He said, feeling unnerved as he could feel the stares on him, and it was making him uncomfortable. That was when he noticed that Tom was staring at him too.

Or rather, his chest.

"What are you looking at?" Alex asked slowly as he too looked down at his chest. And he groaned. This could not be happening. Looking around, Alex could tell that his fellow classmates were also staring at the certain point on his chest.

"What did you do?" Tom asked uncertainly.

Alex rubbed the bullet scar, wishing that he had used his towel to cover the very distinct marking but he had been so use to it that he had forgotten it existed. There was also similar shaped scar under his left arm where the bullet that had almost killed him had exited, but thankfully, that was out of sight.

"I had a bike accident during the previous holidays. That's all." Alex replied, shifting the towel on his shoulder so that it did now cover the scar. He felt oddly self-conscious as he knew that everyone was listening on in their conversation. "Um… I'm going to grab a shirt." He said quietly, indicating the two dirty shirts in his hand before taking off for his tent. Alex ignored the looks his classmates were giving him and carefully avoided eye contact with any of them.

The moment he was in the tent, whispers broke out and while they thought he could not hear them, Alex caught bits and pieces of conversation.

"_Did you see that...?"_

"_Scar? Yeah, it was soo close to his heart."_

"_Bike accident? Yeah right."_

"_Cool scar."_

"_Didn't he say he had appendicitis?"_

"_I thought the appendix was somewhere down here though…"_

"_Reckon someone knifed him?"_

Alex had to smile slightly at the last comment. They were close, but it had been done by a gun, not a knife.

Alex then sighed and rummaged through his backpack for a clean shirt. The news of his scar was probably certainly not going to stay quiet, by the time school started again, everyone would know of Alex's scar and people, especially the male population of the school, would want to see his scar. Despite the commonly held view that girls were the gossipers; Alex knew that guys could gossip just as much as girls, though they were a little more discrete when doing so.

"Why can't things ever go my way?"

Alex asked, looking expectantly up at the roof of his tent. Alex sighed again and then slipped a shirt over his head, knowing he had until dinner to come up with an explanation as to how he received that scar during a bike accident.

* * *

N-Unit exchanged glances as the Rider boy disappeared into his tent and then the chatter started from the other schoolboys.

Dingo was contemplative; Jackal and Jaguar had identical expressions of shock written all over their faces; and Python… well he just looked at his other comrades with amusement.

Dingo then turned to Jackal, the team's medic, and said, "Is that what I think it is…?"

Jackal looked troubled, but nodded slowly. "It sure looks amazing similar to one."

Dingo's mouth formed an 'o' shape.

"Just who the hell is this kid?"


	7. Eagles Aren’t So Useless After All

*looks sheepish* Heey… *chuckles nervously*

Not much to say except that I've been busy, and yes, lazy as well. To be honest I almost gave up on this – I did for a while. But look! Finished chapter, I'm shocked as well. Thanks to everyone who have been pestering me over PM, it helped a bit and gave me the inspiration needed to continue writing.

Well enjoy!

Oh and this is un-edited… Mistakes galore!

* * *

**Chapter 7**

**Eagles Aren't So Useless After All**

* * *

Dinner had been an awkward affair, to say the least.

Alex had spent as much time as he could in the tent before Tom came and literally dragged him out of his safe place. His friend would be the recipient of many dirty looks from the teen spy during the duration of the meal.

"So… Alex."

"What?" Alex snapped, whipping his head around to face his next interrogator – one Marcus Leer. This would be the seventh time that Alex repeated his story about the scar adorning his chest. The bloody mark was starting to become a great annoyance as he also noticed the 'discrete' looks he was getting from the other teens. They really needed lessons in the subtlety department if they thought that Alex didn't notice any of those stares.

The Asian boy seemed oblivious to the annoyance that could be heard in Alex's voice and seen on his face. "I was wondering about your sc-… Whoa, what's up with your face?" Marcus asked curiously as he looked at Alex carefully for the first time.

Alex rolled his eyes. "I'm pretending to smile so that you don't see how I'm really feeling otherwise if you've heard the phrase 'if looks could kill', you would know what it means after I've finished glaring at you." He said dryly, knowing that the other boy would most likely have not listened to a single thing he'd just said.

He was right.

"Oh… I see. Cool." Marcus grinned and gave him the thumbs-up, "So about that scar… can I see it?"

"No." Alex said, "I don't like people looking at it." He added as an explanation.

"That's cool. I think I get where you're coming from."

"You do?" Alex asked, looking surprised.

"Yup." Marcus nodded seriously before walking off, leaving a startled Alex staring at his back.

_Mental that one_. The blonde spy thought as he made a break for it while Tom was looking the other way. Tom, it seemed, had appointed himself the job of making sure Alex finished his dinner before going back to their tent to 'sulk', according to the dark-haired teen.

Alex made it, and breathed a sigh of relief when Tom didn't come after him, meaning that either Tom had forgotten about his job, or he was still distracted by whoever he had been talking to before. The spy didn't care either way, as long as he stayed in the tent, everything would be alright. He was getting very, very annoyed with his classmates and no doubt he was going to be pestered about this particular incident for the next couple of days, maybe even for the rest of camp.

Joy.

Ash, the man who was responsible for the murder of Alex's parents (he was also Alex's godfather, but Alex refused to acknowledge the fact), had once said that the Riders had the luck of the devil. And although he hated the man for killing his parents, Alex had to agree with the statement albeit grudgingly.

Knowing that there would be no more activities for the rest of the evening, Alex changed into a pair of pyjamas and slipped under the covers of his sleeping bag, pondering the 'could have been's' if Ian Rider was still alive. The teen spy smiled sadly and a single tear trailed down his face as he thought of his deceased uncle. He just couldn't bring himself to hate his father's brother for the lies because Alex knew; his life had been a lot happier when he didn't know what his uncle got up to. Besides, it would be a little hypocritical seeing as he too was now lying to his friends about his double life.

"I hate my life." Alex told the empty tent quietly, bringing his arms up to his head and stared at the canopy of the tent as though trying to figure something out.

The sound of footsteps crunching against leaves brought Alex out of his muse. Realising that the sound was coming just outside his tent, he quickly closed his eyes and deepened his breathing. Tom had finally discovered his absence.

"Alex I thought I told you to…oh."

There was a rustle of material and Alex guessed that Tom was looking into the tent and could see that he was 'sleeping'. There was a loud sigh and more rustling material before the footsteps faded away and the tent was once again quiet.

Alex opened his eyes slowly and rolled onto his side in a more comfortable position. He stared straight ahead at the piece of canvas in front of him with an unreadable look on his face.

His eyes slowly closed again and he was asleep before he even knew it.

* * *

"It was a bullet scar for heaven's sake, Jag, a bullet scar on a freaking thirteen year old." Jackal groused, looking extremely agitated as he looked at his red-headed twin. He was not at all happy with that evening's revelations. It had been shocking to say the least.

"Fourteen, Jackal. Not thirteen." Python corrected, looking up from the book he was reading. Out of the four men, he was probably the most calm and observant, not at all quick to anger as some of the others.

"Whatever." Jackal waved a dismissive hand, "But my point is still valid. I would recognise that kind of scar anywhere. I have treated wounds like it in the past and seen them heal." He gave a pointed look at Dingo who was hunched over a notebook, pen in hand.

"You sure you aren't mistaken though, bro? It is… hard to believe and you were a fair distance away from him." Jaguar said with conflicted emotions. He wanted to believe Jackal, but it just was, well unbelievable.

"I am certain. Do you doubt me o brother mine?"

"I would love to say 'of course not', but I am not convinced dear twin."

"I am the medic here, you–"

"Shut up. The both of you." Dingo spoke up suddenly, interrupting Jackal mid-sentence as he glared at both twins. The dark-haired SAS man looked beyond pissed off as he put the notebook he had been studying earlier down and turned onto the twins.

Python glanced at Dingo, concern written all over his face. "You're not even worried the least? Alex is in our care for the time being and as much as you hate all of them, you've gotta cut them some slack."

"That's why you are here, is it not?" Dingo raised an eyebrow, "I make the reports, and you look after them."

Python looked surprised, but that was quickly masked as he replied, "That may be, but then it won't be as good as a report as it could be." The tent was deathly silent as Jackal and Jaguar observed the other two occupants in the tent while Dingo just stared. Never before had any of them heard Python question Dingo's actions.

"Oh and so?" The dark-haired man asked coolly.

"So? You haven't even gotton to know _any_ of them. Observing in the background is all well and that, but two of these boys' lives will change forever based on what you put in that report, so wouldn't you want to choose the best one for the job? Someone who has the best chances of coming out of it alive? You can't just start hating them because they saw through one trick of yours." Python stated, breathing heavily from the lack of air from his rather long-winded talk.

Dingo watched Python intently, the look in his eyes was undecipherable as he listened to the other's rant. "Feel better?" He said when Python finished speaking.

Python nodded, looking slightly subdued.

"Good. Listen up, because I'm only going to say this _once_." Dingo said, placing extra emphasis on the last word, "I have my own way of 'bonding' with them, m'kay? I act like a total bastard because I want to see how the kiddies would deal with someone like me. We can't have them going onto the field if they're going to burst into tears when someone's mean to them." His lip curled with disgust as he said this, making obvious his opinions on wimps.

Python protested. "But…"

"Do you understand, soldier?" Dingo's tone was flat.

Python hesitated then nodded,

"Yes! Sir!"

"Good. Now what are you two staring at?"

"Nothing!"

* * *

_End Day 3_

* * *

The tiniest hints of light was evident when Alex awoke the next morning. It was pretty early, four or five at least, but he didn't care. He finally had some time to himself without fourteen other curious boys (not including Tom) pestering him on where he's been; what he's been up to; whether or not he takes drugs; how did he get scar; whether he takes drugs; was he in a gang; and whatever else they could think of.

Seriously, he thought that they would have better things to do then annoy him for the whole evening. Alex climbed out of the sleeping bag, stretching out his sore muscles. The last few days had been physically exhausting for the teen spy. But he's been through worse. From SAS training to various missions and assignments around the world – his last year hadn't exactly been the quietest.

Changing into more suitable clothes in anticipation of that day's events, Alex noticed the small bag of gadgets and whatnots he had brought with him and again he felt guilty for the insect repellent incident, but there was not much he could do less risk K-Unit breathing down his neck.

His classmates would have a field day should that day ever come.

Alex crept out of the tent quietly so that he wouldn't disturb his snoring friend. So distracted was he that the poor teen almost had a heart attack when he saw four figures by the ashes of last night's campfire. It took him a moment to realise that he was staring at the four camp leaders. Hoping they hadn't spotted him yet, Alex turned to move back into his tent.

It seemed that his sneaking around skills were getting worse by the minute as he was caught again for the second time in less then twenty-four hours. Damn.

"Hey, YOU!"

Alex stopped mid-step, and turned around slowly. There was no use in pleading ignorance as he was the only one outside at the moment who would be referred to in such a manner. Frankly Alex was quite offended at the way Callum treated him. What did he ever do to him? Was there some kind of aura surrounding him that made people hate him more? It wouldn't be the first time someone acted meaner to him then everyone else. Maybe it was time for MI6 to choose a new teenaged puppet; spies after all were meant to be charismatic and likeable, not hated. Just look at his track record. Seven out of seven times the villains almost killed him.

"Morning Callum! Great to see that you're not a morning person as well." Alex exclaimed with false cheeriness as he eyed the Callum and the rest of his crew. They seemed surprised to see him as well, if the looks on their faces was anything to go by. Then again, they seemed to always look like that… It was a bit early to tell.

Just when he thought he would get some time alone.

"What are you doing up, Rider?" Callum's voice seemed resigned as the teen spy joined them by the remains of last night's campfire. "I thought boys your age loved their beauty sleep."

"Couldn't sleep." Alex replied with a shrug of his shoulders. "Though you would know, wouldn't you? It couldn't have been that long ago since you were my age."

There were a few snickers from the twins – Kyle and Henry – at his comment followed by a loud THWACK as Callum clubbed the sides of their heads with a glare. Arthur just watched on in amusement, shaking his head at the rest of his friend's antics.

"Aww come on Callum, I'm only kidding with ya." Alex smiled widely, "No need to take it out on them. We all know you need to look tough, but trust me I've met worse." There was definitely something wrong with Alex's brain at this time in the morning, it would seem that he had left all his sense of self-preservation behind.

Callum turned to him, hazel eyes narrowed darkly at the teen spy. "Such as…?"

Alex had not been expecting the question, he couldn't very well say 'at Brecon Beacons' as that would lead to more uncomfortable questions. "I've attended… Boot Camp…" Yeah, that would do, ". The drill sergeant there was pretty tough." He said vaguely, not wanting to go into explicit detail of the sergeant and his four minions. K-Unit. Although Fox, or Ben Daniels as he was called, was not so bad. He was with MI6 now.

Kyle and Henry looked at each other with raised eyebrows. A measly drill sergeant was tougher then a member of the SAS? Na. The kid was joking. No one was tougher then the SAS soldiers. They were the best of the best.

"Tougher then Callum? Ha! That would be an amazing feat, kid. So I really don't believe you." Kyle… or was it Henry?... chortled as the rest of the group started laughing at their leader's expense as well.

The teen spy just gave him a smirk and shook his head as though to disagree. But on the inside he was quite put off that they didn't believe him. Did he look like one for telling lies?

…

Oh, yeah. He was a spy. Telling lies did come with the job description.

Callum made a growling noise, awfully similar to that of a dog's. It made Alex jump a little in surprise at the menacing tone.

"Back to bed, Rider."

Alex had already turned his back on the four males, looking ready to take off.

"Yes mother."

* * *

"Alex… ALEX! Are you listening?"

Alex shifted, feeling uncomfortable as he 'felt' eyes boring into his skull. Tilting his head slightly, Alex discretely peered out of the corner of his eye and was quite startled to see a pensive Callum staring at him with a calculative look. He quickly averted his eyes and turned back towards Tom, trying to keep up with what his dark-haired friend was saying.

The previously quiet campsite was buzzing with activity as tired and grumpy teenaged boys went about their mornings, preparing for what ever torture that Callum had devised for the day. Tom sat besides him, his mouth going a mile a minute chattering about goodness knows what – Alex wasn't sure as he had been distracted by the let's-stare-a-hole-in-Rider's-head thing that seemed to be going on and it wasn't just Callum and his friends either, the rest of the camp stared as well. He was used to the stares from his fellow classmates though, what he wasn't used to was the older boys staring at him with odd looks. What were they up to?

"Alright runts, gather around!"

Callum's voice rang loud and clear in the clearing, over the top of the soft chatter that filled the air. The effect was immediate, the teenagers quietened and gathered around the remains of the previous night's campfire. It was a feat that no teacher at Brookland had ever managed – successfully silencing a group of irritable teenagers and making them obey. Callum should be proud.

"Today we're going bushwalking." He informed them, green eyes narrowed as he gazed at each of the teens. Alex felt particularly uncomfortable as Callum's gaze landed on him. "For… safety reasons." Callum's upper lip curled in disgust at the thought, "We'll be merging teams one and four; two and three. So that would be my group and Arthur's, and Kyle's group with Henry. Is that clear?"

He received a few mumbled replies. Only Alex had the daring to rise to his feet and snap into a salute, yelling out just as he had been taught during his time at the SAS.

"Yes sir!"

Callum glared.

Alex met his gaze with confidence, raising one eyebrow challengingly.

Callum's left eye twitched.

The silence was drawn out even longer as the tension increased tenth-fold. Neither party seemed willing to back down.

Kyle fell off a log...

And just like that, the staring contest ended with Alex sitting down again and Callum clearing his throat noisily.

"Well, is that clear?"

There was a chorus of half-enthusiastic mumbles of: "Yes sir."

* * *

"What's with all these plants? I feel like I'm suffocating in them."

Tom complained for the twenty-first time, ducking under another yet set of over-hanging branches. The thick vegetation was clearly bothering him as he straightened, only to trip over a thick tree root which was protruding from the ground.

The two boys had agreed to stick to the middle of the group instead of up ahead, where Callum was scornfully picking on two boys at the front. Alex felt sorry for them, but at least Callum didn't hate them as much as he seemed to hate Alex. He would rather it was them rather then him. Sometimes being a coward had its perk.

"Maybe it's because we're in the middle of a forest." Alex answered dryly, marvelling at his friend's sheer lack of common sense. He turned back to look at the dark-haired boy, "Tom?" He asked curiously when he saw that his friend was no longer beside him.

"Down here." Came the disgruntled reply from somewhere below him.

Alex looked down, saw Tom's fallen form and then smirked, "Ah. I see."

"Jerk."

"Bitch." Alex's grin only widened as he offered a hand.

"Ugh." Tom reluctantly took his hand and was pulled to his feet. Displeased with the state of his clothes, Tom began brush all the dirt and leaves that clung to his shirt and pants. His expression stormy as he glared at the tree roots that lay underfoot. "A little less green would be nice."

Alex rolled his eyes.

* * *

Unbeknownst to the group of ten, they were being followed. Grumbling to himself, Eagle immediately ducked – almost face-planting into the ground - as one of the teens looked in his direction. Why did Wolf have to be so cruel? He knew Ben would've been much better for this kind of operation then he was. Eagle specialised in technology, placing him in the middle of the forest – that was like hell. He was at a lost without his equipment and laptop to tinker with. How did people survive without today's modern technology?

Annoyed that the silly kids had taken up the _only_ path within a half-kilometre radius, Eagle had to resort to stumbling through the shrubbery just to keep track of the boys. Rising to his feet as he was sure that the kid was no longer looking that way, he continued to weave his way through the plant life, his mind so focused on the many things he could do to sabotage Wolf's equipment during a training session that he failed to see the tree branches that loomed overhead and quite promptly walked straight into them. Scratching his face and then landing ungracefully on his backside.

Eagle glared at the offending tree. Grinding his teeth, he decided to be the better man and resorted to ignoring the tree, continuing his way forward and leaving the tree behind him.

He moved swiftly through the forest, being a trained professional he easily surpassed the teenagers and overtook the whole group entirely. Settling near a bush, Eagle watched with narrowed eyes as they walked past him, his eyes zeroing on a familiar man who was currently telling off a couple boys for being complete idiots.

It took him a moment to figure out how he knew the man, but then it clicked

"Dingo." Eagle breathed, aghast as he realised why the other male had been so familiar. They had trained together… Shocked at his revelation, Eagle gleefully thought about how Wolf would look when he informed him of this new development.

Something was disturbing him though. Why was a Dingo look after a bunch of teens? Perhaps the man swung that way. Ew. He did not just think that. It wasn't the possibility that Dingo was gay or not, but the fact that those kids were perhaps half his age. Mentally gagging, Eagle got to his feet again and continued on his mission.

Wolf was going to have a field day.

* * *

Alex leaned against the tree, an expression of great boredom on his face as he stood at the back of the group. Impatiently watching as Callum moved around, showing them the different plant life in the clearing and explaining their uses in a survival situation. It would have been an interesting lecture if he hadn't already learnt this all thanks to his late uncle, Ian Rider.

While Callum spoke, Alex's eyes flickered around the clearing. Searching. Something felt off – he couldn't describe it, but it felt like someone was watching… He had been in the spying business long enough to know that his instincts were almost always right. They were being watched. He was sure of it. Alex could only hope that it wasn't a member of Wolf's pack because that would be disastrous if he was recognised. Not only would they find out who their mysterious poltergeist was, there was also the distinct possibility that a commotion would lead to his classmates finding out what really happened when he was 'sick'. This wasn't good, he could always hope that Wolf would be the bigger man and not retaliate – that was a little too optimistic, even for him. In his line of work, optimism helped, a lot. If it wasn't for that, most of his crazy plans would've probably failed if he had been a pessimist about them.

Alex tried not to panic. He hadn't been recognised yet (he was still in one piece) but it was only a matter of time before his identity would be revealed.

He was so screwed.

Focusing back on Callum, he willed the bastard to hurry his lecture and finish it. Alex's left eye twitched in annoyance as the older male looked briefly in his direction. (And was it just him, or did Callum seem to be slowing down his speech just to aggravate him?)

Alex _really_ didn't like Callum.

Slouching even further against the tree, Alex lowered his gaze and tried to look like he was paying attention. He knew he would stand out like a sore thumb if he tried anything else, and seeing as so far no crazy gun-slinging SAS soldier had barged out of the bushes yet he reckoned he was safe for now. Who knows? Maybe Callum's speech would bore their stalker to sleep. Serves them right. Perhaps Alex should pay K-Unit a visit later…

No, too risky. Not yet anyway. Alex would have to lie low for a while, keep his head low and avoid drawing attention until the next disaster happened. Honestly he had the worse luck. Murphy's law seemed to have been made specifically to piss him off.

If anything can go wrong, it will.

If there was a tagline to sum up Alex's life so far, it would be that. No other person would have managed to live through the shit he had lived through, except for maybe John and Ian Rider. But both men were dead now. Rider luck indeed. He was forever doomed to a life of misery where he would attract the ire of people such as Wolf, Callum and Herod Sayle. (Yes he likened the first two to that _bliddy _criminal. They were all insane.)

Callum had stopped talking; Alex looked up hopefully only to let out a sigh of disappointment as the camp leader moved around the clearing to show them_ yet_ another plant.

Alex wanted to bang his head against something.

* * *

Wolf drummed his fingers against the log thoughtfully. N-Unit? Interesting… So Eagle was not as hopeless as he had thought. What to do... what to do with this new piece of information.

Then it came to him.

Perfect.

* * *

Ben 'Fox' Daniels shuddered as he saw the particularly evil smile that crossed Wolf's expression. That man was scary sometimes; he truly lived up to his codename as he looked like the sly wolf about to sink his teeth into his prey.

Just what was he up to?

* * *

_Later that day when all the kiddies were asleep…_

Dingo aka very-annoyed-SAS-soldier stalked into the team's tent. The little brats had been particularly rowdy that night, a fight breaking out amongst two of the groups of teens. Punishment had been handed out swiftly and Dingo had supervised, enduring hours of whining as the fools complained. They were weaklings, the lot of them.

The tent went noticeably quiet as they noticed his foul mood, the atmosphere suddenly becoming tensed as the other three glanced at each other nervously. They had bad news.

"What is it?" Dingo snapped, annoyed as it seemed that they knew something he did not.

"MI6 contacted us earlier…" Python started hesitantly.

Dingo raised an eyebrow,

"What did they want?"

Two sets of eyes turned to their unwilling companion, Jackal, who gazed helplessly between Python and Jaguar. He squirmed under their stares as a third pair of eyes turned to the man quizzically, his face fell as he fave Python and Jaguar a betrayed look and took a breath.

"Apparently they're sending an agent tomorrow to have a look at the potential recruits. But that's not all they wanted either. They also requested that Wolf's Unit will be helping us out from now on." Jackal stated solemnly while the other two members of N-Unit just braced for the impending explosion.

"…"

"WHAT?"

* * *

_End Day 4_

* * *

There you have it, chapter 7! I'm not even going to promise when the next update will come because I have no idea myself…

... So, who spotted the Supernatural reference? ^^

-BelieveInDreams


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